ultranumb
by thir13enth
Summary: An experimental product of Orochimaru's lab, Sakura wages revenge against Orochimaru, bumping into love instead. SakuSasu
1. Chapter 1

**So as a short introduction to this fanfiction—this actually started out as an OC character story with a completely different plotline, but then I wondered, "What if I change my character to Sakura?" And once I started replacing the names with Sakura, a completely new twisted story developed! Alas, characters do much to change a story!**

**I plan this fic to be relatively short, or at least I intend to, looking into the future at my plans for this. As a warning, this fic is most definitely AU—I haven't kept up with Shippuden, so think 'waaay before Pain destroyed Konoha' when you're reading this. Rating will be apt to change—for language and all the bloody mature good stuff. **

**Anyway, let's get on with it:**

**I've never written a disclaimer before but I guess it's time to try one out: I'm not associated with Naruto or Kishimoto, and I'm unfortunately not writing this for profit—except for the reviews that I hope my readers will so kindly later gift me.**

* * *

**Prologue: **

**"violated, so degraded—the show has just begun"**

_Hearts up in their throats, they ran through the many cold dank chambers, with just one direction in mind:_

_Out._

_"I'm right behind you!" cackled the taunting voice, which echoed through the entire underground vault._

_She panicked, gasping, "Oh my god! Oh my god!" She was half-crying, half-scared, all-thrilled, the blood in her body coursing hot and spiked with adrenaline._

_She clutched his hand tighter, feeling the force of his run jerk her forward—at times she skipped a step, half-tripping because she couldn't keep up with his long gallant strides, but each time, he fastened her fingers with his, making sure that he would never let her go._

_Her companion looked back behind the two of them briefly, his onyx eyes holding fear that she had never seen before in his brave gaze. Sweat matted his raven locks against his forehead, but he didn't bother to push his bangs out of his eyes, in case his pace was interrupted by even the simplest swipe._

_They couldn't afford to lose this chance out of this icy hell, especially not for a pesky misplaced strand of hair._

_Two years they were locked in there, and they weren't going to take another second with the Devil himself._

_His maniacal laughter erupted through the stone walls. "My pets are actually trying to escape—what a noble effort!"_

_She sucked in a breath, ignoring his taunts. "Sasuke!" she cried, not knowing what else to say. His name brought comfort to her—as long as he was there, she wasn't alone._

_She could hear her teammate's heavy panting as he turned another corner._

_"It's there, Sakura—we're almost there!" he exclaimed, and the two of them found extra energy to run even further, even faster._

_He stopped suddenly, under an upward leading tunnel that was their way out into the light. He turned, dragging Sakura protectively behind him and hurling a fire ball back down the corridor they came sprinting in from._

_Sasuke looked up and then leapt for the ladder, reaching back down to Sakura to help her up onto the lowest rung. "Come on, come on, come on!" he encouraged, racing his way back to the top, disabling the chakra seal on the rock above them and pushing with all his might._

_Even from a few feet down where Sakura was, she could smell the fresh breeze of the outside. In bliss, she almost lost her grip of the ladder._

_Sasuke caught her wrist and hoisted her back to the ladder._

_But then pure terror pierced his eyes and she could even see the reflection of a white snake right under her. Screaming in horror, she scrambled up the last rungs of the ladder, feeling Sasuke's fingernails digging into her skin to help her up and out._

_Her head popped up above the ground's surface and his mouth prepared to make a shout of victory._

_Then she felt a slithering serpent's tongue snake around her right ankle. With a piercing cry for help, her head went back down into the ground._

_"No no no no no no! Shit! No!" he cursed, digging his heels into the ground and pulling at her arm so hard he was afraid her shoulder would disjoint._

_"Sasuke!" she yelled, biting down on her lip, knowing that she wasn't going to make it—not with the force of the snake forcing her back in._

_"No!" he bellowed, sudden tears falling out of his eyes. "I won't let you go!"_

_She couldn't help but cry, lifting another hand to him—now all four of their hands were balled up in tight fists and knots intertwined around each other, determined to not let go._

_One of his nails broke, some of the others started to dig blood out of her skin._

_And still, she was descending back into the abyss._

_"No no no no no!" he roared, suddenly enraged, suddenly desperate, willing to give up his soul to save her from the inevitable._

_"Sasuke!" she sobbed, shaking her head, her emerald eyes telling him that she loved him and that she loved him, and that she loved him._

_He hoped his obsidian eyes returned the same messages, as he felt his heart tearing apart when he noticed all he had left in his hand was just one of her hands, the sweat and blood between their skin making their hold weaker—slowly her fingers were gliding away._

_They held onto each other through the last moments—blood, sweat, tears, pain, cries, yells._

_"I'm coming back for you!" he promised her at the very final second, as her hand slipped out the last of his despaired grasp._

* * *

**Chapter One: **

**"we've got everything you wanted"**

If Buddhist lore was true, Sakura quickly realized that it was good she had reincarnated as a human, and not as a dog.

Digging in the ground was not a pleasant experience and probably not worthwhile for what she was going to unearth, but it was the only way to get what she wanted.

A smile cracked over her lips when she uncovered a mangled limb, and she whipped out a large vinyl bag from her back pouch, taking hold of the cold flesh and starting to fill her sack with the cadaver segments.

Once she was sure she taken hold of an entire body, she quickly checked for more pieces of corpse, tossing a hand, segment of a thigh, and a bicep into her bag, flipping it across her back. She couldn't stick around here for much longer; no doubt Konoha forces were going to be heading in her direction soon for her crime of grave robbery.

"Stop where you are this instant!" a loud voice demanded, a short distance away from her.

"Shit," she muttered, scrambling to exit the scene, half tripping over a circular rock.

"Bitch!" the rock cursed back.

"I thought I forgot something," she growled, grabbing the head's silver hair before throwing it into the sack with the rest of his disassembled corpse.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, treating my body like that?" the head snapped. "And who the hell are you anyway?"

She didn't answer, taking off at full sprint to escape from her pursuers, who swiftly trailed her, jumping from branch to branch. Silently calculating their movements, she predicted that they were planning to hone in on her from both sides once catching up to her.

But she couldn't let that happen.

"You never answered my question, whore!" a furious bellow emerged from inside the sack.

Holding some spiteful words back, Sakura pursed her small pink lips and concentrated on first getting the hell out of there.

She'd deal with his shitty mouth later.

If it wasn't for the angle of light, she wouldn't have seen the fine threads webbing the area ahead of her.

_A trap, _she realized, and she reached behind her to produce shuriken from her back pouch, but found that impossible to do with the heavy load that she was carrying. So instead, she borrowed the scythe that came with the body pieces that she had just stolen, lashing out at the thin strings before passing through the broken trap.

"Hey! You treat my scythe with respect, too, idiot!" the disembodied head continued.

Ignoring the voice, she blocked off the incoming kunai, bouncing the projectiles off the three curved blades of the rather cumbersome weapon.

Her emerald eyes scanning her environment, she tucked the scythe back under her arm and increased her speed, slithering chakra into the wind to help her propel faster, whipping her long ruby hair back behind her run. The bag of body parts jostled against her spine and she disregarded the comfort, knowing it was just a few more seconds before her success.

But Konoha's forces were gaining in on her—her speed was drastically affected by the extra body weight she was carrying and by the difficulty to handle a two-handed weapon in her non-dominant hand.

She had to push herself to go faster though, otherwise she wasn't going to make it.

"Calm down, woman! Take it easy and stop bouncing around like a goddamn rabbit!"

Tightening her grasp on the heavy sack and not heeding any attention to the talking head, she sucked in a breath and lifted her legs.

**divider**

"She _flew_?!"

And a tanned hand slammed down on the oak desk in utter disbelief and frustration.

"What the hell do you mean 'she _flew_'?!"

"S-she was just running, sir!" the ninja quickly explained. "And then, out of nowhere, _wings _sprouted from her back and she literally went up into the air and flew!"

_Crazy ass flying jutsu, _their general thought. The damn Akatsuki had come back for their fallen dismembered immortal comrade, with a whole new level of techniques. How they even came up with such an idea was beyond him.

He closed his cerulean eyes and massaged his temples briefly, running his hands through his already messed up blond hair.

Seeing their stressed out captain, another one of the ninja asked, "Sir?"

"Describe her appearance in full," their general replied, snapping out of his furrowed eyebrows and grit teeth. "If there's another Akatsuki member that we have to look out for, then let's add this flying girl into the database before she strikes again."

He twirled a pen into his right hand and whipped out a scroll from one of his desk drawers.

"Height and weight?"

"About 5' 3'' and probably close to 100 pounds."

"Hair and eye color?"

"Blood red hair reaching well past her shoulders and green eyes."

The writing paused. "What kind of green?"

"…something between jade and emerald," and then the ninja asked, "Why?"

"For specificity," briskly answered their leader. "Did she use any particular type of jutsus when you guys were pursuing her?"

"No…she just ran. Cut through one of the string traps and blocked projectiles using the Akatsuki's scythe."

"And um…what color were her wings?" he asked, writing in 'wings' in the 'Other Characteristics' part of the form.

"Like fire."

Out of curiosity: "So…were they tiny wings or…larger?"

"I'd guess…about the same as her arms width?" Estimating wingspan definitely wasn't in any sort of ninja training manual.

Setting the pen down, their chief thus rose from his seat and walked over to a map of the campus, placing his hands behind his back.

"Recap the whole incident, someone?"

A jounin stepped forward. "She came in from the northwest corner, coming in undetected through our security system and then made her way to the Akatsuki's corpse pieces. We caught her once she started digging but when we reached her, she—well, as you know—flew."

After a moment of thinking, their general turned his blue eyes on all of them. "Alright. Let intel know that Akatsuki Hidan is now active again—I doubt that they just took his body for a proper burial. We continue tracking Akatsuki activity as before, but with an extra lookout for the new girl. Recall that we are currently in process of locating their main resource supplier, which is suspected to be somewhere in the northeast deserts of the Land of Wind."

He ended here for a moment but then added, "And…I guess you should also let security know that we need to start being prepared for less…grounded assaults. You are all dismissed."

"Hai!" the ninja saluted their leader solidly before filing out of his office room.

A spiky brown-haired ninja was stopped before he was able to exit.

"Konohamaru?"

Said chuunin whisked around and presented a quick salute of acknowledgement.

"Yeah, Naru—I mean—sir?"

"It's okay, names don't matter," forgave his general before pausing to collect his words. "I'm sorry if I overreacted earlier with the whole…flying mess. It wasn't any of your faults—there was no way that you guys could have been prepared for that sort of escape," he eventually apologized.

"It's okay, Naruto—totally understandable," assured the youngest Sarutobi. "You had just personally taken down Hidan yourself the other day. I think it's acceptable for you to be angry that we lost him."

The general rubbed his tan face again, sighing. "You know how important it is to me to defeat the Akatsuki. It's why I created this whole taskforce specifically to take down the Akatsuki."

Konohamaru cracked his superior a smile. "It's honorable, what you're doing. Not everyone that loses their teammates can get right back up and make some change happen." He noticed that Naruto's weary eyes didn't seem at peace, and so then offered, "How about I take you for ramen later tonight? My treat."

Azul eyes sparkled and a grin spread across his chiseled face. "Now you're finally showing some respect for your general, huh?"

The younger man rolled his eyes. "Some general—you're still a _genin_."

"Fuck off," the blond replied, setting a steady hand down on Konohamaru's head and messing up the tidied mahogany hair before the subordinate did just that.

After Konohamaru left, Naruto paced back hesitantly toward his desk where the still open scroll lay. He frowned when re-reading the description of his newest offender.

Eyes between emerald and jade, huh?

He once knew eyes like that.

The last time he saw that shade of green was during a misplayed chuunin examination.

The last time he ever saw her—she had slipped out of his fingers before being swallowed by a white snake.

**divider**

It was like a puzzle.

"This is definitely_ not_ my right arm! This is my _left _arm, and it goes on the _opposite _side on my _other _shoulder!" complained the head, which Sakura had intentionally placed right-side up on a rock in front of her. "And hurry up—or I really truly will die! It took you damn long enough to find me!"

She looked up to check the position of the setting sun before quickly checking on her surroundings. She had gotten the two of them a considerable distance away from Konoha—there was no way that anyone was going to find them out here, especially because she doubted that they'd be able to track her.

They were probably not expecting wings at all.

Reaching back behind her, she scooped all of her hair up into a tight bun, sweeping all her distracting locks out of her face.

"And who are you, anyway?"

When the body-less head didn't receive an answer, he murmured, "Well clearly, you know who I am, if you know enough to put me back together again."

She didn't waste a word replying to him, and curiously held up a silver necklace that held a pendant—a circle with an inscribed equilateral triangle.

"That goes on my neck!"

Sakura ignored him and set the pendant back down on the ground aside her. She took a left hand and placed it in its appropriate place.

"Are you having fun? Because I'm not—with your dirty atheist hands all over my immortal body! At least my previous partner was good with the needle and thread…whatever the hell happened to him anyway?"

She placed his knee to the corresponding leg, laying all that aside his torso.

"You're not answering my questions!" he growled. "Who are you? Where is my partner? Why are you—?"

She snapped her fingers, and a flame danced on her fingertips, a fire that she brought dangerously close to the tattered clothing of his body.

"I can easily change my mind and have you reduced to ashes," she snarled. "So while you're still incapable of moving, I suggest you not encourage me to set you afire. Right now, _I _am your god, and right now, _I _determine your life or death."

"_Jashin _is my sole god," he corrected, sneering at her. "And besides, you wouldn't dare to get rid of me now. You obviously have a reason to risking your pretty ass to retrieve my body."

And for once the deconstructed Akatsuki member was right.

She ignored him like she did all the other times he had tried to initiate conversation.

"Hn," he smirked triumphantly.

Sakura quickly assembled the rest of his body together before whipping out needle and thread from her pocket. Fortunately, the stitching didn't take too awkwardly long since she had had to do a lot of needlework in her past.

Finished, she picked his head up and propped it into place, finishing the final touches and cutting the last line of thread with her teeth.

"Happy now?" she asked him in a low menacing threat.

His body clicked and he sat up, testing out each of his joints and slipping the tossed-aside pendant over his sewed neck.

"Not half as bad as Kakuzu," he remarked, cracking a few knuckles before doing the same with this head, propping his right hand against the back of his head. Then he noticed something was missing.

"You're missing my motherfucking pinky!" he cursed, displaying his incomplete hand in her face.

"I know," she said stoically, slapping away his arm. "You're going to have to deal with it."

Hidan immediately double-checked himself, looking around. His violet eyes paused on the ground before her.

"And you're almost sitting on my dick."

Disgusted, she abruptly stood, brushing the dirt off the seat of her pants vigorously with both hands, and checked the spot where she was sitting.

Noticing nothing was even there, her jade eyes turned and glared daggers at his chortling face.

Stepping forward, she raised a fair skinned arm and slapped him squarely across his jaw, but this only let the masochistic man laugh even more. His chuckling eventually faded and he slowly stood up to his full height, a full head taller than her.

His cold hand clasped her shoulder, the strength of his arm effectively pinning her down. He propped up his scythe onto his other side, balancing it with his free arm.

"Now tell me…who _are_ you?" he cooed, a smile playing on his pale thin lips. "Give me one reason to keep you alive."

"I'm your savior," she wittingly answered, her resolve sharper than her tongue.

His dark lavender eyes narrowed. "You're not Akatsuki," he continued, his head lowering condescendingly over her, his silver hair tickling her tense jaw. "What do you want with me, pretty girl?" he breathed into her face.

"Take me to see Itachi," she spat in his face.

**divider**

While they waited on their orders, Konohamaru shifted his hitai-ate back up his forehead, hiding a sweat bead that trickled down his temple in the heat of the Ichiraku ramen shop.

"Thanks for treating me, by the way," stated Naruto, tapping chopsticks on the counter in front of the younger man. The blond still remembered back in the day when the kid was still in Ninja Academy, still hot-tempered and spoiled rotten from his grandfather's Hokage status.

Those were the days when he himself was still wearing an immature orange and white jumpsuit.

_And when Team Kakashi still existed, _he recalled before he could stop himself.

"No, it's my pleasure," insisted his subordinate. "After all, who gets the privilege these days to eat plain old ramen with the head of the anti-Akatsuki campaign, who single-handedly brings down S-rank criminals in one blow?"

"Lost one of those," reminded Naruto. "He's probably being stitched up back together again as we speak."

"Nah, forget that! You've really advanced your division—and I'm proud to be training under your ranks!"

"Okay, what do you want, teme?" the general asked, snapping his chopsticks at Konohamaru's face. "You've got to be complimenting me for a reason. Flattery always has a price."

"Nothing, sir, I swear!"

"And you _never _call me sir."

The brown-haired chuunin placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Listen, I just want to let you know that people really appreciate all the effort you're putting into making this world a better place. And that even if, like today, something wrong happens, it's not like you failed everyone."

Naruto returned the shoulder hug. "Aw, thanks, man."

"And well, I also forgot my wallet."

"You bastard," replied Naruto with a knowing smile, reaching into his pants to produce his frog-shaped coin purse.

"I'll make it up to you," Konohamaru sheepishly promised.

"Don't worry about it—it's on me," his superior affirmed, spilling out the clanging metal change onto the counter, but moving the money out of the way to make room for their soups. "Itadakimasu, bitch," he added, sticking a hungry set of chopsticks into the noodles.

Konohamaru returned a grin and slowly started to slurp up his meal before something else bothered his mind. He composed his thoughts for a moment and then turned to his eating general.

"So…do you mind if I ask what happened?"

The blond raised his face from his bowl, a bit of vegetable stuck to his right cheek. "What happened when?"

His subordinate hesitated. "During…you know, your chuunin exams? I mean, I only know rumors about what happened and I know that Hokage Kakashi was your team leader, but I was just curious—sorry if this is a bad time, you're in the middle of enjoying ramen and you probably don't want to talk about this…"

Naruto returned a composed smile. "It's not a big deal, and besides, ramen makes everything better."

"So…the Hokage was your team leader right?"

"Yep, old-man-Kakashi-Hatake was our team leader," Naruto explained. "Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno were my teammates. We didn't hit it off with a good start but by the time it got around the chuunin exams, we at least knew more than just each other's names."

Konohamaru vigorously nodded his head, affirming that he was still listening.

"And I don't even half remember what happened then—it was all a blur. One of the chuunin groups was an imposter and worked for this Akatsuki guy named Orochimaru. So when we were on the second part of our exams—the survival part—in the Forest of Death, the damn Akatsuki swooped in, bringing Sasuke into a fight. I fought against him with Sasuke, but man, we were just sucky ninjas back then, and Sasuke was just taken away—swallowed by a giant white snake," he continued, biting his lip.

"Sakura was there, too, and she was trying to help us but once Sasuke was gone, we freaked out and ran. She tripped on a root and her ankle twisted—I got her back up but her other foot was in the snake's mouth…and I tried to hold onto her but she just…slipped out of my hand," Naruto concluded, his voice wistful. "That's all that happened—never saw them ever since."

The younger man swallowed hard. "So that's why you decided to do all this anti-Akatsuki business. Kinda like…taking revenge on them for your teammates."

"Yup, and I never retook the chuunin exams ever again. That shit's just all a title-play anyway."

Konohamaru looked down at his ramen morosely.

"And Kakashi-sensei reacted in the same way, sorta, I guess. He just got to become Hokage before I did," Naruto finished, downing the rest of his soup in a final gulp with a tilt of his bowl.

"That's rough; I'm sorry."

Naruto shrugged—it was an incident, something of the past that he liked to think that he had already gotten over and finished crying for.

He looked over at his saddened younger friend and jutted a chin towards the remaining ramen in front of him. "Are you going to finish that?"

**divider**

"You can't just expect me to tell you information without answering any of _my_ questions, bitch," Hidan growled lowly, not intimidated and unflinching from her hard death stare.

Her lips curled into a snarl as his smirk grew wider.

"There, there now," the silver-haired Akatsuki member coolly whispered, trailing his hand down her cheek and cupping her jaw to tilt her face up to him. "You don't have to look so ferocious—I _already_ know you don't like me. Just relax…" and a cold thumb brushed over her soft lips in an attempt to smooth out the wrinkles.

His free hand played at the skin around the top of her collarbone—she hadn't been able to acquire new clothing for the past month. The fabric of her dark scarlet shoulder-less top was fraying at the edges and her black lace half-sleeves were growing holes large enough to fit fingers. Her greying and dirt-streaked pants were growing loose, and she had been using a ragged old rope to keep the pants tied to her waist.

"You _have_ to tell me about yourself after all this time we've spent together," he continued, his breath eliciting chills over her skin. "You seem to know so much about me—it's time for me to get to know _you _better."

The fingertips of his hand slid down over her shoulder blades, caressing the odd nubs and bumps over her upper back.

"Starting with…where did you get those pretty wings of yours?"

A flash of anger arose from her green eyes and she bit the thumb at her lip.

He instantly retracted the hand from her face, shaking off the brief pain as a crooked smile danced over his jaw.

"The only person that I know that can create those sorts of inhumane masterpieces is Orochimaru," he continued.

The muscles over her back rippled in her contained hatred, even just _hearing_ the consonants of that infamous name.

The Akatsuki's eyes lightened when his hand felt the tense knots surfacing on her skin, knowing that this was an affirmation to what he had previously assumed.

"Alright, never mind then…touchy subject," he purred, taking a lock of her hair and curling it around his finger, while the other hand continued to slowly massaged circles at her back.

His violet gaze held the intense flame color of her hair for a moment.

"Is this natural?" he questioned softly instead. "Redheads are always _such_ a catch…"

She held her silence.

"Won't even answer that?" he crooned, tucking the strands back behind her ear. "At least your name, then? So when I think of you later in a more private setting, I can call out a name?" he coaxed her.

"Sakura," she replied sharply, unwavering to his implications. "Sakura Haruno."

"Sakura…" his tongue tested the syllables. "What a whorish name."

"Remember it when you're lying in your grave," she bitterly retorted.

He snorted. "You won't find me in one. I'm one of the more devoted ones…and chosen," he explained. "Was presented with immortality—the only problem with an everlasting life is that I forever need to deal with bitches like you."

Losing her reason to keep calm, she gathered chakra in her left hand and threw up a punch at his stomach. But the Akatsuki caught her fist and lifted her wrist up toward his mouth, pressing the soft pulsing skin against his lips, hushing her temper.

"Then how did you end up in that mess I found you in?" she mocked, taking her hand back from him.

"A stupid ass kid blew me to pieces," he explained simply.

"Served you right."

"Hey now, let's not change the subject," he chided. "I still have questions for you."

"I don't have to say a word to you."

"I think you owe me answers."

"I don't owe you anything," she snarled. "I got you out of that shithole and put you back together again. You're the one that needs to pay up—I already told you that I need to see Itachi, and you're going to take me right to the fucking bastard's front door."

"I don't have to do anything for you," the Akatsuki stated, a shadow of smile still on his face. And he leaned his face toward her, close enough that she could see the speckles of lust in his velvet eyes. "You can't do a thing to me: torture is my pleasure, dying is impossible, and I _still _know where your desired target is."

Her lips pressed shut.

The man was right again—she didn't have much to offer him, but he had her entire future at his hands.

"You have nothing on me," he threatened in a deep voice, a rumble at her ear. "All you have is fresh blood—and I'd love to quench my thirst right now."

She stood still, only her emerald eyes tracking his slow movements.

"It's a perfect time for a sacrifice—I'm sure Jashin wouldn't mind tasting some of your sweet blood."

But she was pretty certain there was more that he would like of her body than just her lifeblood.

_Men were all the same_, she thought with disgust.

There was always only one thing that they wanted from her.

And it was good that she was experienced—there was no way he'd be able to deny her any demands she'd make on him after this.

"Of course, there's one thing I can offer you," Sakura muttered, under a low breath, tilting her lips toward the crook of his neck as she rose her hands onto his chest, fingertips hooking at the ledges of his collarbones.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, an eyebrow cocked. "What can you give me?"

"Your _wildest _dreams," she guaranteed in a whisper, her tongue flicking at the shell of his ear as she slipped teasing fingers well down past his stiffened abdomen.

* * *

**Well, now that the first chapter is over…what do you guys think? Kill or continue? Would ****_love _****to hear your opinions!**

**Oh, and song of the update: ULTRAnumb by Blue Stahli – the story's namesake.**

**thir13enth**


	2. Chapter 2

******Slight spike in the rating for the beginning of this chapter. Hope you guys don't mind—though in my experience, people never complained for a bit of higher rated things.**

******Anyway, all mistakes are mine-I have an attention-hogging dog on my lap that scratches me whenever I stop petting him. -_-**

******Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Two: **

**"they'd rather chew than spit, and they're full of piss and vinegar"**

Several bites and many moans later, they both collapsed onto the mattress, eyes dilated, cold sweat over their skin, smell of fresh love and raw body in the air surrounding them.

Taking one last glance at his fair-skinned face, she slowly rolled her back to him, softly groaning when she realized there was a hand-shaped bruise on her right bicep. She cupped her chest in her hands, still moist from his mouth play.

The Akatsuki wasn't impressive, and in fact, he wasn't the least bit special when it came to that department.

She would have expected such a high ranking ninja to be able to give better, but all he really had were kinky fantasies that she had never dreamed of—filled with different combinations of limbs she never saw fit suddenly entangling with each other and eerie reminders that her flexibility could still use a bit more work.

Regardless, men were all the same.

This, a lesson she learned a long time ago.

They liked to think that she actually _liked _them, and they felt so dominant when her breasts would marble at their slightest touch, thinking that it was because of _them _that the phenomenon happened. But they were stupid, because her hardening was a natural reaction that would happen with _any _of them.

Arousal was not the same as love—the bastards would never learn.

She was always sure to know their name before she started anything. It helped put a good show when she grunted, panted, and cried their name later, along with whatever encouraging demands she could think of.

And she was good enough to get anything she wanted after they fell back into the sheets, groaning in the memory of the ecstasy.

Sex was a tool.

Love was nothing more than a lie.

Just a few whispers of little sweet nothings could make even the strongest men fall to the wit of a woman who knew what she needed from them.

This she knew all too well.

This was how she had survived through life for months after she escaped from _him. _

_Him, _Orochimaru, who was the worst of the male kind—one who had kept her imprisoned for his own sadistic glee.

And the _only_ man worse than the man that had given her an empty promise five years ago—a promise that kept her waiting, her hopes higher than the ceilings she prayed she'd soon get out of; a promise that never came back to seek her, spoken from lips she hadn't heard from since that fateful moment she slipped from his hands; a promise that guaranteed that he'd keep her safe forever, utterly a lie; a promise, as thin as a rice cracker, and just as easy to break.

She barely remembered how she had escaped from that hell on her own.

But once she had been back up above the surface of the ground and breathing air that didn't reek of her tears, she had immediately found the nearest bar and had drunken herself to oblivion.

When she had woken up the following morning, the bartender had demanded money from her, something Sakura hadn't had. She had admitted this, and the bartender had taken one glance at her ripening curves and had asked her about her age.

Eighteen, she had answered, still hungover from the incalculable number of drinks she had downed the night before.

The bartender had suggested she go make some money off her natural beauty, and with his yellow crooked teeth, had smiled at her, in an offer that all her debt be paid off if she would offer herself to him.

And since then, she had been surviving off the money in the pockets of the men's pants that she had been always stripping off.

Her life, she thought, had been strangely easy—she had just let her body do what it needed to and the only thing she had needed to do was to keep her mind out of all of it. The men had always been occupied—both their minds and their bodies, and she had always just used her reserved wits to get what she had wanted.

The men had been intrigued by her. She had been regarded exotic and especially desirable. They had loved the mysteries that were wrapped up in her scars, smirking hungrily and trying to guess how she had gotten each mark on her skin—a sick game.

"Nice cosplay," they had also all remarked, whenever they had handled the fragile wings down her back.

She had told them that the wings weren't a costume, but they had just smiled omnisciently, playing along with what they had thought was a lie. "Sure, sure," they had laughed, but she had just silently mocked them for their stupidity.

There was a breaking point for everything, however, and after having sold herself for a year, she had finally decided to stop when a man had pissed her off beyond her control of her temper.

She had killed him, taken the remaining money out of his pants and then had decided to go after Orochimaru himself, and kill him as well.

And so here she was.

Sakura's breath eventually calmed and she felt a cold arm snake around her waist, pulling her against the Akatsuki's chest, his silver-hair falling over her neck.

She felt his nose bury into her hair and graze her neck, inhaling her scent like he was trying to re-experience everything all over again.

Taking hold of a kunai that she had prepared under her pillow, she rotated, facing him, and with her abdomen pressed up against the muscles of his torso, she brandished the weapon's point at the soft underside of his jaw.

"Take me to Itachi," she reminded him with a snarl.

He returned a thin smile before giving the knife a lick with his tongue and blowing in her face.

She shut her eyes at his breath, preventing her uplifted bangs from poking at her eyes, and when she regained sight, he was already out of the bed and clothing himself.

"Not even a full night, huh?" he sneered, but she knew that he was no longer interested.

Hastily, she re-tucked herself into bindings and dressed, finishing with a tightening of her waistband and a knot for her weapon pouch. Spotting her hair tie—thrown up into the air in the middle of a voracious battle for lust—on the floor, she swooped down to pick it up and gather her hair into a bun.

The Akatsuki threw on his cloak as he opened the door to chilly after-midnight air, looking up at the pale white moon. He looked back at Sakura, white teeth gleaming, and then beckoned her to come.

**divider**

"Sir, we've surveyed the area and have results on the chakra signature that the thief left behind," a glasses-wearing white-coat-donning lab specialist announced, walking into the room.

"Awesome, what do you have?" Naruto said, reaching back into his drawers to fetch a scroll to document the finding on the case.

"However…" and the general's blue eyes shot up at the premise of getting some bad news. "…the chakra signature that we got from the examination wasn't too clear."

Naruto's forehead wrinkled a bit and then said, "Lab mess-ups happen all the time—why is this one particularly interesting?"

The researcher hesitated before explaining, "So the chakra signature was mixed in with some other animal species, which makes sense if the user was eventually able to summon wings to fly. But then we also got a few hair and skin samples…and those samples also weren't exactly…clear either."

"I'm not sure what you're getting at. Just tell me directly what the problem is."

"Well…the hair and skin samples also displayed foreign non-human DNA, just like the chakra signature that was left behind."

This made Naruto's lip twitch a bit. "So you mean to say that the person that stole off Hidan wasn't actually a human," he concluded slowly. "And that this person didn't use a jutsu to fly at all…but her—its—own wings?"

When he was given a nod, he leaned back into his chair and ran his fingers through his yellow hair, sighing. "Well…human-animal hybrids aren't something you hear about every day…"

"Of course, something could have gone wrong with the analyzing or—"

"You guys run the best test results—that's why I selected you guys—so no matter how outlandish it all seems, I believe you guys," he assured the flustered scientist. "I mean, go ahead and test it all out again, but I'm prepared to believe the Akatsuki has something like that up their sleeves."

"Okay, sir. That will be done." With a bow and flurry of lab coat, the researcher was out within the next second and Naruto was left sitting at his desk, staring at the scroll that had just been filled out the day before.

He sat silently in thought for a moment and then picked up his pen and added 'human-animal?' at the bottom of everything he had recorded. Naruto then rolled up the paper and tucked it back into his desk before stepping out of the room.

_What the hell are the Akatsuki up to?_, he couldn't help but wonder.

**divider**

"Out of sheer curiosity, I have to ask what you want with my comrade," Hidan said, stopping suddenly and turning back around to face her.

She quickly observed their surroundings. She barely knew the world anymore, but she could tell that they were no longer in Fire Country. Judging from the rectangularly cut buildings and white canvas material used for roofing, she figured they were somewhere along the brinks of Wind Country. At the moment they were standing in the middle of a relatively busy street, with many a passerby completely unaware of who either of them were.

There was no way that any team of the Akatsuki was stationed here.

"You better not be tricking me," she replied calmly, reading a reserve of chakra at her hands.

Sakura didn't want to start a fight in the middle of innocent people, but she didn't want to have been misled by the bastard either.

"I just want to know—for all I know, you could be working for Orochimaru," the Akatsuki explained. "And I'm sure you know how we feel about the fucker."

No doubt she knew—Orochimaru's mind was twisted, and found only sadistic pleasure in everything around him, but there was only one group of people that would legitimately piss him off: the red-blood cloaked ninjas.

She had never been able to learn the backstory that set Orochimaru and the Akatsuki apart, but the demented snake-loving man had done enough scheming for her while she was imprisoned by him to know exactly who and what the Akatsuki was.

"I'm not working for Orochimaru," she affirmed.

"Right, and you're a virgin," he deadpanned with a smirk.

"I'm not doing anything for the bastard," she repeated. "I just need to see Itachi."

"Why?" he insisted.

"You didn't ask me this before you fucked me."

This evoked a smile from him. "I'm an opportunist."

"I need to see Itachi. I have to talk to him personally."

"I also know that his little brother was captured by Orochimaru, too—I wouldn't be surprised if you two knew each other," Hidan added. "Though we were never quite informed with what the asshole _did _to you guys. Never would have guessed he was putting wings on you guys."

She bristled. The loud-mouthed Akatsuki actually knew a lot more about her than she had hoped.

"Oh wait—weren't you and little Uchiha teammates back in Konoha?"

"Shut up," she growled, finding her hand at his cloak's collar in a threat. She released the fabric at her hand, wary suddenly of the heightened public attention she was drawing to them. "Just take me to Itachi," she demanded. "I give you my word that my only motive for seeing him is to talk to him."

"About?"

"That is none of your damn business," she warned the Jashin-worshipping fiend. "Just get me to Uchiha."

"Give me a reason to believe you."

Her eyes looked to the right, catching a few villagers throwing them strange looks. She stiffened before reaching up to kiss the bastard, biting his lower lip and squeezing his bicep with one of her hands while guiding his other hand briefly over her bosom.

When his breath hiked, she pulled away, wiping her mouth.

His purple eyes tested for her for a moment and then he started to walk again.

"You know, ironically, a whore should never be trusted," he muttered.

She wasn't amused. "And you can have my blood for your stupid sacrifices," she added.

"Ah, now you're actually _worth_ something."

**divider**

"Give me an update," Naruto stated, walking towards the lieutenant.

"Kakuzu was spotted in Wind Country, just like you predicted, sir."

"What's his trajectory?"

"He's been making approximately five mile circles on his path—seems he's catching on that he might be being followed."

"So do we know if he has even retrieved anything for any supplier?"

"According to Group 3, he hasn't made any contact with any person yet since crossing the border from Rain Country…and we don't know anything that went on in Rain Country because of the obvious complications."

Naruto stared down at the map on the table, rubbing the back of his neck. "Are Group 1 and 2 still stationed in the same places I had ordered?"

"They should be, sir."

"Make sure they stay where they are," the general said. "And until Kakuzu exits their attack range they shouldn't reposition. They have to be prepared to intercept at any given point in time—we have no idea who he's meeting up with."

"Yes, sir," the lieutenant affirmed.

"If we do this right, we'll be one more step closer to taking down another one of those damn bastards."

**divider**

Before Hidan even raised a hand to knock on the wooden door in front of him, it swung wide open.

"Were we expecting you?" the blue-skinned male behind the doorframe asked.

"No," replied Hidan, gesturing vaguely in Sakura's direction.

"What does she want?"

"I need to see Itachi," she answered for her silver-haired companion, turning the shark-like Akatsuki's attention on her.

He looked at her for a moment and then told her, "Itachi isn't here right now."

"What do you mean?"

"It means you can't see him right now, bitch," Hidan told her loudly.

"He's out busy," the other Akatsuki explained, a bit more respectably.

"Bullshit," she snarled. "I can smell him sitting just a few feet behind you."

The Samehada-wielder narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted.

"If she has that perceptive of a nose, she might be worth talking to, Kisame," a younger more tender male voice wafted from inside the room.

The gilled man swiveled his head, before opening the door wider to allowing Hidan and her in. The two of them were given chairs, encouraged to join the two other Akatsuki at the table. Sakura took the seat directly in front of the raven-haired ninja, studying his calm countenance.

"Smelled him, huh?" Kisame remarked, implying a question.

She didn't answer, looking around the empty room while keeping the corner of her eye on the Konoha-exiled shinobi.

"Kisame, you bastard, you have _another_ animal's sense of smell," the foul-mouthed Akatsuki to her right replied. "Who's to say she isn't gifted in the same way?"

Her eyes shot toward the Jashin-worshipper, who caught her jade glare and hid a knowing smile.

She made sure to have the next word—before she was interrogated even further.

"I need to speak to Itachi," she reminded them.

"He's right in front of you—go ahead," his partner coaxed.

"Just Itachi," corrected she.

The other two almost protested, but a fair-skinned hand rose to silence them.

"I'll speak with her," he said, and the other two dismissed themselves, stepping quickly out of the room and she watched them close the door securely behind them.

Once they were out of her scent range, she turned her attention back to the male seated before her.

It almost pissed her off how much the elder Uchiha looked like his younger brother.

He waited for her to speak first.

And she gladly took the opportunity.

"Where's Sasuke?"

**divider**

"Sir, Kakuzu is no longer within range of Group 2, and he is about to leave Group 1's cover radius."

"Where was he last spotted?"

"Group 1 reports he's within this area," replied the informant, who pointed at a spot on the map about two inches from the border between Rain Country and Wind Country.

Cerulean eyes considered for a short moment before bringing two fingers down to diagram.

"Do we know what the terrain is like here?"

"Same as any desert."

"Good. Group 1 should be re-stationed here," Naruto declared, tapping on the paper with his index finger. "And Group 2 likewise here." His middle finger now drummed the map. "And I want Group 3 to be ready, when the time comes they need to be able to deploy and strike from the east," he continued, showing this movement with a rotating thumb.

"Group 3 will turn from reconnaissance to offensive, sir?"

"If need be—Kakuzu might be more than the five-hearted creep we expect him to be," their general affirmed.

"I mean, fuck, what if _all_ the freaking bastards suddenly learned to fly?"

**divider**

Itachi's smooth response came a few seconds afterward:

"Why did you come to me for that question?"

"Because you know where he is," Sakura stated simply.

"How can you assume that I know where he is?"

The cherry-haired kunoichi didn't hesitate for a moment. "You have the intellect and the networking to keep you informed of his whereabouts—why _wouldn't _you take advantage of that? And I'm certain you're not the type to choose ignorance over information."

He seemed to deem her answer intelligent and then replied, "What do you want with my little brother?"

"You don't need to know that to tell me where he is."

The raven-haired Akatsuki was far better with words than his shit-mouthed comrade she had spent the night traveling with. "You need to tell me in order to help convince me that I tell you."

"I need to ask him a favor," she admitted finally.

"It must be a great feat you're trying to accomplish then," the Uchiha commented, "if such a capable shinobi like you requires assistance."

"I'm not here for flattery."

"It's not flattery—how else would you have known where Hidan was buried, gotten to him despite Konoha's security, and successfully used him to reach me?"

If this was his way of extracting more information about her, he wasn't being too subtle.

"Rumors, luck, and…Hidan isn't one of your brightest members," she answered.

"And you knew Kisame was lying."

She smiled sweetly. "I have an impeccable sense of smell."

Realizing she wasn't going to give him any useful words, he let his case rest.

"I don't know where he is," he finally told her.

This enraged her. Her back straightened in her chair and her fingers rubbed against each other, short of making a fist.

"What do you mean you don't know where he is?" she snapped quickly.

"I don't know where he is," he simply repeated.

"You're lying."

He didn't react, dead still.

Which even further poked at her nerves.

Reaching across the table, she held a blade at his neck. "I didn't come all this way for your shit."

His calm façade didn't let up.

It was rare when Sakura didn't get what she wanted.

And she _hated _it whenever her wit, charm, or threat wasn't enough to do just that.

So she swiped at him, fully intent to kill.

His body turned to crows.

Her emerald eyes widened when she quickly realized why.

The slick bastard had accursed her in a genjutsu! He had known that with her heightened sense of smell she would have noticed an illusionary environment lacking the normal amount of aromas she experienced and so had casted the Sharingan on her when she had been focusing her nose's attention on ensuring that Hidan and Kisame were out of hearing range.

She had barely noticed the transition; Itachi was much more adept that she had expected.

Awakening back to reality, her muscles jerked back to control.

She found herself clenching the arms of her chair and noticed he was still sitting in the exact same position as he was in his genjutsu, complete with the same composed facial expression.

"Is that what he did to Sasuke as well?" he asked.

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed, not understanding what the Akatsuki was referring to, but she caught red at the corner of both her eyes. Turning her head to the side, she silently gasped upon realizing her wings were outstretched and quickly tucked them back, pulling the back of her shirt over her shoulder blades.

"Something like it," she admitted, hearing the hint of genuine concern in his tone of voice.

He didn't push any more questions. "I can't let you hurt him," he said.

It took her a while to respond—she saw the lining of another side to the elder Uchiha that she hadn't expected before arriving—one that his younger brother probably denied existed.

"He hates you, you know," she said quietly.

If Itachi felt anything about that, she didn't detect it.

"He's one of our suppliers right now," the raven-haired man finally answered. "He runs a black market."

Her eyes narrowed. "I don't believe you. He wouldn't have any desire to help the Akatsuki—he knows that you're one of them."

"He doesn't know that he's selling to us," he briefly explained.

Sakura thickly swallowed. "So where is he right now?"

"I wasn't lying when I said I didn't know. I can't be the one picking up our supplies from him."

The kunoichi decided that Itachi had already given her all that he could provide.

"Thank you," she said quickly, standing up to leave.

He didn't respond, simply watching her go as she exited the room.

Retracing the steps Hidan had led her up to get out of the inn, she made a left to turn into a street so that she could walk out her thoughts but was stopped by a cold grip on her wrist.

"And where do you think you're going off to?"

"I told you that all I needed with the Akatsuki was an answer from Itachi," she reminded darkly, not bothering to look back at the immortal man. But after a second, she realized that maybe he could give her one last piece of information.

"Well I'm not letting you go as quickly as that red-eyed freak is," Hidan murmured.

She twisted her wrist out of his hand. "What do you want?"

"A favor," he explained. "I need to go pick up a few things for our lazy boss. My partner is busy and I miss the company." And then as an afterthought, he added, "And also, I can use you as a hostage. You have a cute innocent face."

Sakura wasn't sure if it was coincidence that Hidan was the one picking up the supplies that Sasuke was supposedly providing them, or if Hidan and Itachi had prearranged everything beforehand. So to test, she refused.

"I don't have to do anything for you," she said. "You have nothing to offer me anymore."

Here, he smiled. "But I know that you're Orochimaru's spawn. And then the rest of my comrades would desire your blood on their knives."

Blackmail, huh? She guessed she could play along with his game.

"Itachi doesn't give a shit about Orochimaru nor does he have any desire to pick fights with people, but I'm sure his fish friend would love to get a cut into you—and I'm not going to deny him help in teaming up against you," Hidan continued. "Even if you do manage to somehow fend us off, even the demoralized Uchiha isn't going to let his long-time partner in crime die in your hands. In other words, you'll be killed within seconds once I let anyone else know about your wings."

With that, she concluded that the silver-haired male didn't know shit about what happened during her short conversation with his Sharingan-utilizing comrade.

If sticking with the Jashin-follower gave her at least a chance at finding Sasuke, she'd do it.

"And don't think you can get out of that by whoring again," he added, breath tickling her ear. "Because I have much stranger fetishes than last night's…"

She couldn't help but shudder.

Reluctantly: "Okay."

* * *

**I'm worried about OOC-ness from any of the characters…forgive me if I totally messed someone up!**

**Song of the update: Reborn by Paul Udarov – a beautiful instrumental piece.**

**And of course, reviews are always welcome. :)**

**thir13enth**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, cranking out the next update:**

* * *

**Chapter Three: **

**"if time's a song, I won't wait for its reprise"**

"Naruto, sir, while in transition to your relocation site, Group 2 spotted Hidan traveling with a female that matched the appearance of the newly documented Akatsuki!"

Said general shot up from his seat, running over to the informant standing at his door. "Shit, no way! Don't tell me that they're following the same track as Kakuzu?"

"Actually they seem to be heading toward one of the places that we've documented Akatsuki transaction before," the messenger replied while walking Naruto to the intelligence headquarter office.

"Which site?"

"Gamma, sir."

"And how sure are you that he's heading over there?"

"On our maps, there's nothing else that he can be heading toward—he's making a straight line for Gamma…and according to Hidan's previous and rather foreseeable behavior, it would make sense."

The blond stroked his chin—he remembered that place clearly. "The last time Akatsuki was spotted at Gamma, Sasori had apparently picked up some mechanisms for his newer puppets…" his voice faded out before he added, "…as well as several bodies," under his breath.

That was probably about two months ago or so.

"What was the last report on Sasori?" Naruto asked upon barging into the room of his intelligence officers.

"Uhh…chards of clay bombs from Deidara was spotted in Earth Country last month?" one of the more scrawny men said, unraveling a scroll. "Otherwise, nothing on him except for at Site Gamma where he—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," the general interrupted, thinking deeply.

Knowing Sasori's perfectionist attitude, the puppeteer wouldn't leave the rowdy Hidan to pick up anything for him unless he absolutely couldn't, which could only mean that the Akatsuki had a plan underway involving Sasori.

What was this plan? The only action that his spies had been able to recently pick up was that Kakuzu was en route for some sort of transaction—it could be the only thing the money manager of the group was doing.

Kakuzu could have also been picking something up for Sasori as well, which would be highly probable—it would make sense for the zombie team to split for the time being in the same country and then get back to base at simultaneously.

It all led up to Sasori working on some sort of a big project, and at the moment, Naruto couldn't fathom what it could be—except for maybe…a larger puppet?

"Sir?"

"I'm missing a piece of the puzzle," he blurted aloud.

"Perhaps we will wait for another update from the groups you sent to Wind Country?" an advisor suggested.

But the general worried that it would be too late to take care of whatever demonic thing the Akatsuki was working on by then. He had to know for himself what the hell was going on.

"You said that flying girl was with Hidan?" he asked, turning to the messenger that he had been previously discussing the new information with.

"Yes, sir."

He bit his lip while weighing his options.

Hm, he might as well go ahead and take this opportunity to see these wings for himself.

Naruto looked up to the nearest man on his left.

"You," he demanded, pointing at the unlucky victim. "You're in charge for the time being. Make sure that all messages get relayed to me and that all my messages get sent to the corresponding groups."

"Wah-what are you saying, sir?" the nervous ninja hesitantly asked.

"I'm going out to the field myself," he explained briefly.

Some raised voices and 'sir's amassed the room.

"Wait, have you discussed this with your other divisions?"

"Sir, isn't that too dangerous?"

"What if reinforcements need to be sent?"

"Are you going _completely_ alone?"

"Enough," an irritated general growled. "I haven't been out in a while and I want to investigate this myself—it'll go much faster, trust me." He looked over at his appointed substitute. "Besides, I'm sure you'll do a good job taking care of the place while I'm gone right?"

The cadet paled, but forced a smile and saluted. "…Sure, sir."

The colonel to the right of Naruto rolled her eyes. "The cadet will have some help from his higher-ups," she assured, knowing the general's rather unprofessional method of task distribution.

"Awesome," the blond said. "I'll be leaving later today after I talk things over with the Hokage. I should be back relatively soon—Hidan isn't too far from his destination, and I'm not planning on ambushing him."

"So what about Groups 1, 2, and 3? Are they status quo on assault against Kakuzu?"

The general nodded vigorously, though it seemed like he was distracted in thought about something else. After a few seconds, he verbalized, "Yes. Yes, we're still going to go for Kakuzu. Assuming that both of them are intercepting something for Sasori, as long as one of them is down, then the Akatsuki's project will be incomplete."

_Ah, perfect_, Naruto thought.

But then he calculated through the mishaps that might foil his plans.

And after a moment, he huh'ed and muttered, "Not bad," under his breath.

It was more likely to be a gain than a loss if he went about as he planned.

"Alright, that's the order," the general concluded.

"Are you going to need backup for yourself, sir?" the shinobi across the table asked. "I have a few extra men—"

"I'll figure that out myself," said Naruto, holding out a hand. "Thank you for the consideration, though, Major." His cerulean eyes surveyed the room once more. "Okay, dismissed. Spread the news in the division and make sure everything stays in top condition while I'm gone."

Salutes and a unified "Hai!" before the blond exited the room.

Placing his hands into his pockets and walking with his head down, he quietly reconsidered what his plan of action. So deep in thought was he, that he bumped into a very familiar face.

"Ow shit!"

"Oh, sorry Konohamaru," and the general stepped to the side. "Oh never mind, I take back the apology—that's for making me pay for ramen," the blond remarked with a snarky attitude.

The brown-haired ninja clucked his tongue before spinning around to join Naruto's walk. "What's up, sir? You look constipated. And you always look constipated when you're thinking really hard—not that that's a bad thing or—"

"I guess I'll take you along with me then," Naruto interrupted. And before his subordinate could ask, he explained, "Going out to the Wind Country later today—got some investigative work to do and you are now coming with me."

"Wait, what? What happened?"

"Hidan and that flying chick are over there and I'm going to catch them."

"Wait, but…now? Later today? Did you even get this approved?"

"I _am _the one approving of my actions," the general replied wryly. "And I'm ordering you to come with me."

Flabbergasted at his superior's spontaneity, Konohamaru stepped in front of Naruto's path. "I mean, like with the Hokage! I'm sure he's not going to just let you do something stupid like—"

"You know sometimes I'm not even sure if you're trying to insult me or if you're actually concerned about what's going to happen to me out there," replied the blond, swerving around the younger shinobi. Before the other one could protest, he added, "Don't worry—this is all under control and honestly, the plan is practically foolproof. You should go start getting ready—we're leaving right away once Kakashi knows about this mess because I'm sure he'd be totally fine with it."

"…and if he's not?"

"I'll make sure he's totally fine with it," Naruto declared. "Now go get ready, you punk."

Turning right once he reached the end of the corridor, he took a few quick calming breaths before opening the doors to a larger executive office, where a single table towards the back was, a gray-haired shinobi relaxing against the chair with his feet propped up on the desk.

"Kakashi," he nodded before stepping further in. "I'm going to be leaving for the Wind Country in a bit."

A sluggish eye opened. "Alone?"

"I'm taking Konohamaru."

"What's the whole deal?"

"My intel spotted Hidan over there. There isn't going to be any disadvantage in me checking out what's going on over there—the Akatsuki are in the middle of doing something huge and I'm hoping that checking out what Hidan is up to will clue us in on it. The whole thing that we're doing with Kakuzu is still going on so even if I fail to get anything, I'm sure they'll still be able to intercept Kakuzu. It's a win-win situation no matter what."

Kakashi didn't answer him right away, slowly dragging his feet off the table and the resting his head on his hands, quickly cracking his neck before asking, "So why are you doing this? Can't you send someone else in to go check out what Hidan is up to?"

Naruto bit back his tongue.

"It's just because you want to get back at Hidan, right? You thought he was done but then he got back out of the ground," his sensei said. "You're just taking revenge on him personally."

"Well, there's also this other thing that I wanted to check out for myself while—"

"So tell me about that flying girl," Kakashi interrupted.

"She essentially broke through and put Hidan back together again," Naruto explained. "And she can fly or something."

"Do you have any more information besides the fact that she has wings?"

When Naruto didn't answer, the Hokage warned, "You're just getting obsessed, Naruto. You're just so focused on finding out who or what she is, _especially _because she got past your defense system and quite literally brought someone, who you painstakingly took down, back to life." Kakashi let this settle in the general's head before continuing. "You're not thinking things all the way through—you just really want to solve this whole mystery and get back at Hidan."

Naruto didn't reply, but he didn't look like he was affected by Kakashi's words either.

"And I know how much this means to you…but you can't just throw yourself out there out of the blue and expect things to go well. I mean, if something happens to you—"

"I'm going to track down Hidan myself, Kakashi," Naruto stubbornly declared. "And if it was going to end up badly, whoever I would send out would end up exactly the way I would. Regardless, I'd be throwing away _some_body to go get them. Why not just do it myself?"

"You're not—"

"If I had said that someone else was going, you'd probably say 'whatever' without even hesitating."

"Naruto, it's not like that—lives are at stake; you have to think things through before setting out to do them. You just got this information a few hours—"

"Oh, I know," Naruto interrupted. "It's not that you're warning me that a life might be at stake—it's that right now, _my _life is at stake." Naruto paused and then said, "And you can't afford to lose another one of your students." And before Kakashi could argue, he continued, "Well fuck it! I've already gotten over the fact that they're gone—that's why I'm doing all this shit and that's why I'm going to get out there and finish things out myself."

"Naruto, you're not getting a word of what I'm saying. Just listen to me—"

"Screw you, Kakashi!" he erupted suddenly. "All you've ever taught me since the chuunin exams is to not get myself killed—and you _still _haven't gotten past the guilt that Sasuke and Sakura are gone!" He took a deep breath before saying, "Well I've already accepted that they're gone and I've already moved on—I just want to take care of the Akatsuki and I'm not going to let some fear hold me back."

Silence fell over the two of them, and they both were carving at it from either end, trying to figure out how best to shape their thoughts.

Naruto fell through, looking down shamefully—"Sorry…I just really feel like I have to go out there and do it myself."

The older shinobi sighed before continuing, "I'm just worried since you tend to just go straight into things without giving it much thought."

"Sorry about all that crap from before," the blond apologized once more. "It just kinda came out."

His sensei didn't comment.

Naruto snorted. "I was giving you crap about not getting over Sasuke and Sakura, and ironically here I am—going against the Akatsuki _because _they were taken by them."

After a beat: "Just don't do anything stupid."

The younger man's blue eyes flickered up. "You're giving me permission?"

"I trust your commitment in this, and from what you've already told me, I can tell you've already thought a least a little bit about this," the Hokage explained, placing his feet back up on his desk and leaning back once more toward the back of his chair.

"Really?"

"Yes. Now get the fuck out of here before I change my mind."

**divider**

She hadn't said a single word to Hidan since she had agreed to come along with him, but she hoped that she would be able to eventually figure everything out without having to ask questions.

In fact, she was trying to avoid all questions—knowing that if she asked them, the Jashin-worshipper would probably ask her for more favors that she intended to ever give him in the first place.

Sakura knew that thinking positive wasn't going to get her anywhere, but she thoroughly hoped that somewhere along these lines, she'd be able to find Sasuke. There was a chance that Hidan himself was going to pick up supplies from Sasuke, if what Itachi had said about Sasuke supplying them was actually true.

And Hidan didn't know about her trying to look for Sasuke—so when the right time came, she would steal away from the silver-haired man and deal with her teammate from there.

_Sasuke_, her mind thought, and she almost grimaced.

The kunoichi hadn't been able to think about her raven-haired teammate in good terms for the longest time, and she wasn't ready to forgive him yet.

And she was sickened by the idea that she was actually trying to find him—when it was really him that should have been looking for her after all these years.

The fact that he wasn't didn't surprise her, however.

Men were all the same.

They were particularly good at breaking promises.

However, she knew that the only way to achieve what she eventually desired was to go through Sasuke Uchiha, and as much as she would have loved to skip the step where she would have to see his face again, she had already sucked up and mustered in the scorn she held in her heart for the bastard.

"Did you get what you wanted with Itachi?"

She didn't answer, still running along beside him.

She saw him narrow his eyes in the corner of her eyes.

"I can only assume you didn't, because otherwise you would have given a much better fight against coming along with me," he concluded.

Keeping her face still, she tried to cover the fact that he was half right—except that she was actually still following along with Hidan for an entirely different reason.

"Heh, women and their mysteries," the silver-haired shinobi muttered under his breath.

"Where's your partner?"

Not expecting for her to have said anything, he whipped his face in her direction. "What?"

"You have a partner—every Akatsuki member works with a partner," she clarified. "Where's Kakuzu?"

He didn't answer her question. "So you did your research before seeking us."

The winged kunoichi assumed that Hidan already knew how she knew all about the Akatsuki—Orochimaru was quite obsessed with planning their downfall, she had just overheard all his plans during her imprisonment.

She didn't say a word, reminding that her question to him from before was still hanging in the air.

"Kakuzu is busy," Hidan simply answered. "And what I'm doing doesn't necessarily need him."

"So why did you want to bring me along if picking up these supplies can just be done on your own?"

"Really now, you can't figure that out on your own?" he asked her sarcastically. "I can't leave someone that is potentially enemy-material running around having taken advantage of the Akatsuki."

"You don't trust me," she asked him, but it come out more in a statement.

"Truly, you are bright."

Sakura didn't retort, keeping her lips shut.

"Which makes me think that you still believe that I can help you with something else," he explained. "Itachi didn't answer all your questions."

She wrinkled her nose at his uncanny accuracy.

"So I must ask," he continued, "just like when we first met: what do you want from me?"

"You blackmailed me," she said. "I didn't have a choice. You would have told the others that I was working for Orochimaru if I didn't come along with you."

"Bullshit. Why haven't you flown away yet?"

She didn't answer.

He laughed at her. "You think you have everything figured out—that you don't have to say a word and no one has to know who or what you are," he mocked. "But you're no different from anyone else—just some poking and prodding and you turn completely transparent."

A fist formed in her left hand and her right hand began to reach for the kunai at her waist.

"Just try," he snorted, noticing her sudden will to hurt him. "I'm not dying anytime soon."

She just grit her teeth.

She was beginning to think that she'd much rather be stuck seeing Sasuke's face than hearing Hidan's voice for even one more time.

**divider**

"How can you be so sure that Hidan's going to come up _here_?"

"I just know," simply replied the general, hushing his flustered comrade. "He's not going to go the conventional route that we predicted."

"Intel said that he was going to be at site _gamma _not this random place in the middle of nowhere," retorted Konohamaru. "And you're just going to sit and wait here to see if he comes by on a _gut _feeling?!"

"I've fought the bastard before—I think I can trust my own instincts about—"

"And what if you miss them? What if you miss your chance—"

Naruto snarled, grabbing the younger man's bicep into a tight squeeze. "Don't tell me about missing chances when I've been the one trying to get them," he threatened between his grit teeth. The superior cooled himself down, however, throwing aside his clamp on Konohamaru.

"Besides," the blond continued at a normal tone, his countenance faded to solely furrowed eyebrows and his lips settling back to a calm façade, "if I lose this opportunity, I still have teams on Kakuzu. This was just a little extra point that I'm trying to score."

"You didn't believe that when you were trying to convince the Hokage," Konohamaru muttered under his breath, smoothing down his sleeve.

Naruto ignored his subordinate's criticism, casting a glance to the side before pushing Konohamaru around the next corner.

"Hey—what the—"

"Shut up!" Naruto hissed, letting the other shinobi recover himself from the ground and see for himself what had caused the general's sudden movements.

The Akatsuki weren't even being discrete about where they were—Hidan's long flowing cloak trailed in the sandy breeze as he casually strolled toward a house about two houses across the street where the two of them were quietly observing the enemy.

Hidan was equipped the same as ever—with nothing but his arrogance and a three-pronged scythe. But this time, rather than Kakuzu, there was that woman that he had heard so much about.

She was full head shorter than the silver-haired man, her fire red hair reaching down past her shoulder blades. She didn't wear the typical Akatsuki attire—Naruto wasn't sure what to glean from that fact—but instead donned ragged and old fabrics: a dark scarlet shoulder-less top and a baggy well-worn white pants.

He was almost surprised to not see any trace of wings; the wings were probably the most defining characteristic that he recalled about her from her profile. But he figured that her wings operated like those of a bird's and were just as able to retract.

Just where would the wings sprout from anyway? Her back? Her sides? Perhaps that was why her choice was clothing left her bare at the top—to avoid her top getting destroyed each time she unfurled her wings?

And what the hell would the wings be made of? Feathers? Or were they more like a bat's wings? Or maybe they weren't natural at all—maybe they were inserted into her back? But that wouldn't make sense; the girl actually had the animal DNA in her! Maybe that was all a coincidence?

"Ohhhh shit…" breathed the younger man, spotting the very two figures they were waiting on. "They're right _there_."

"What did I fucking tell you," the blond remarked, but without much attitude—he was distracted and, if he could admit it to himself, quite nervous.

Naruto, unlike many of his past experiences, was actually not sure what to expect from a shinobi that could fly. He, for once, didn't know how to approach this enemy.

As long as he could take care of Hidan first, right?

Then he could find out himself what this chick was capable of.

**divider**

Immediately, she knew that she had let her hopes get up too high.

Sasuke wasn't the one that Hidan was meeting, she concluded, when she noticed that he waltzed into a building without even a change of clothes, choosing to keep the very visible red-clouded cloak over his shoulders and his scythe crossed over his back.

_Ugh_, she thought.

Now what was the plan? All she knew was that Sasuke was a supplier. And that this supplier was they were about to see was not Sasuke.

Hidan's voice broke her thought. "Come on, bitch," the Akatsuki told her, holding the door open.

So she followed in after him, cautiously. She was still aware that this could have all been a trap set up to capture her, and that despite all her efforts to try to do so—Hidan was right—she didn't know shit about the Akatsuki. She also knew well enough that she was not that good of a shinobi to fend them off.

"Yo," he greeted to an old man sitting at the corner of the room.

The elder looked like any normal villager to Sakura, and the fact that this transaction was being done in his very home startled Sakura, as she observed the dining table and leftover dishes over to the side of the room.

"H-hi?" the senior responded.

"I'm sure you know what I'm here for," Hidan said, reaching for his scythe.

"Yes!" the old man exclaimed, getting up immediately, fear in his eyes. "Please don't hurt me!"

"I won't so long as you have what I came for."

The frail man scurried over to a box on one of the shelves behind him and hurriedly opened it. In it were two silver colored rings, both of which he quickly scooped out of the case and handed over to Hidan in shaking hands.

"Perfect work as always, old man," Hidan remarked while taking hold of the merchandise. "It's why we keep coming back to you."

Trying to get a look at the rings herself, Sakura asked, "What are those for?"

He looked at her like she was stupid. "Nothing that you should damn know about."

Not put off by his comment, she threw him another question. "But you're not giving him anything in return?"

"I've already paid him," and he looked over at the old man, who didn't say a word. "Right? I've spared your life—I think cheating death is a good amount."

Her lips inherently curled into a scowl and she grabbed his bicep as he turned to walk out the door. "That's just wrong."

"To be honest, I'm not sure if what I'm doing is ever right."

"You can't just keep using brute force," she quietly continued at a volume that the elderly man couldn't hear. "I thought the Akatsuki was at least generous enough to pay their suppliers—isn't that why Kakuzu is the money manager?"

"He still is," Hidan replied. "He's cheap as fuck—he's not going to pay the ones that aren't strong enough to fight back."

Sakura's scowl turned mental—she never had a personal reason to dislike the Akatsuki, but they were growing to be on a very dark side of her heart.

"I mean," and here, Hidan's voice plummeted to a low threat, "that's why you haven't seen a cent come out of my pocket to deal with you."

Her eyes widened and her hold on his bicep turned into a death grip but the Akatsuki quickly reached into his cloak and threw a stack of bills towards the old man.

"You're lucky that your work is the only one that my comrade will accept," Hidan told the elder and plucked Sakura's hand off his arm.

Keeping her wrist in his fingers, he walked out of the room, leaving with an almost sincere 'goodbye' on his lips.

Looking back down at Sakura, he told her, "Unfortunately I don't have any money left for the likes of you…unless of course, you really_ are_ a whore."

She spat in his face.

**divider**

"Remember, just don't let him get your blood," the blond repeated, fixing a few kunai into his sleeves to make them more accessible. "We have a huge chance here—Hidan is a slow attacker and Kakuzu isn't there to cover him right now. Go for the guy first—don't let the girl distract you. Just play defensive with her."

"Okay, okay," Konohamaru nodded, attempting to slow down his own breath. He closed his eyes a moment before peering around the corner once more.

It wasn't the Sandaime's grandson's first time out on the field, but it definitely was his first time facing a real live Akatsuki.

He literally had never been this close to one of those rogue nins—they were parked up right against the building that their opponents had just entered and just past the edge of the wall was the door that the two Akatsuki would be passing through.

Naruto put his hand on Konohamaru's shoulder, forcing a grin. "What…chicken?"

The brown-haired shinobi wheezed a nervous laugh. "Easy for you to say. This is my first time doing anything crazy like this."

The smile on his general's face whimpered a bit. "Don't make it be your last."

Before any more words of luck could be passed, the door swung wide open, revealing a cackling Akatsuki man and his smaller framed companion.

Holding their breaths, the Konoha shinobi slowly stalked behind their two adversaries, keeping an eye on them until they were within their planned attacking range, away from the innocent townspeople.

Throwing stringed shuriken and bombed kunai at the two of them, Naruto began the fight first, getting up onto his feet and following in the same suit of his projectiles, a precursor to a sky-blue Rasengan held between a shadow clone and himself.

The Jashin necklace around Hidan's collar swung along with his rotating body, a slice to the air rendered the shuriken useless and some high velocity wind-style jutsu hurled the tagged kunai back towards them.

Parting with his clone, the blond enveloped his chakra into a denser rotating sphere, forming full-fledged Rasengan and transferring it to his right hand. Taking Hidan's slower speed to his advantage, his doppelganger and him winded around the black-cloaked man, hurling the energy blast at him from behind.

The S-rank shinobi had already replaced himself however, appearing in front of Konohamaru—who flipped backwards in surprise.

"Shit!" the general cursed, looking over towards his comrade. He almost missed the red-head coming up behind him, a gleaming dagger swinging upwards in her fist.

Naruto twisted, meeting their blades with a metallic clash and grit teeth.

Emerald eyes widened upon rendezvous with cerulean irises—

"Naruto?"

* * *

**Well…honestly you all knew that this moment in the story was coming—I just decide to use it as a break for the next chapter regardless. :P**

**So I gave our favorite ramen-loving ninja a bit of a Shikamaru-type mental boost in the beginning of this chapter, but to be honest, I think Naruto is a smart person, which is why I don't think it's too alarming that he's making plans and runs a whole division on his own—while he was portrayed as a goofy immature kid in the series (and sometimes still is), I earnestly think that he's so much more than what he might be cut out to be.**

**Anyway, as always, I humbly beg for reviews.**

**Song of the update: Against the Tide by Celldweller – utterly one of my favorite songs.**

**Review please; I'd loooove to know what you guys are thinking!**

**thir13enth**


	4. Chapter 4

**Well here comes another chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Four: **

**"they taped over your mouth, scribbled out the truth with their lies"**

_This _was something that he had not foreseen.

"S-sakura?"

Their blades still quivered against each other.

Naruto found himself sputtering, "What…why?"

She retracted her kunai and stepped backwards, speechless.

"You're working for _them_?!" he could hardly get out. "What are you doing?!"

His teammate lacked the words that she was trying to get off her tongue, her eyes panicked and her feet backing away even further from him.

"I-I thought I'd never see you again! I—" and the blond turned around to look at Hidan. "They took you away! They're making you fight for them?!"

Something washed over him as Naruto returned to her green eyes—a shade that he thought he'd never see again, a shade that he regretted not being able to put a name to—and he tried to read his former teammates emotions.

God, what had they done to her?

The cherry pink hair that she had once so delicately taken care of was now a devil blood red; her fair smooth skin turned rough and unevenly tanned with a multitude of nicks, scratches, scars; she had grown from her pre-adolescent years into a mature body but she was thinner, the bone at her wrist protruded and her thighs lankier; there was now an edge to her jaw in replacement of the gentle smile that used to grace her lips; and her eyes…

Still that indescribable shade between emerald and jade.

But there was a dark fleck to the hue—she had seen more of the world than she needed to, the bright wide-eyed curious innocence was jaded, her eyes weary and tired.

"Sakura?"

"She came to us," the Akatsuki explained, dragging his scythe along the ground, throwing Konohamaru toward the ground by the collar.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto snarled. "You were the ones that took her away from the very beginning."

Hidan's eyes narrowed, a smirk wiping over his cold smile as his lavender eyes traversed to Sakura's direction. "For some reason, I don't quite remember that."

"Shut the fuck up, you lying bastard," Naruto interrupted. "You guys are paying for what you did to her. You guys are paying in tenfold."

Sakura found her voice. "Naruto—"

"Tell me what the hell you guys are up to," he demanded. "Give me the shit you just got."

"Oh, these?" asked the silver-haired man, throwing two metal rings up in a tease. He tucked them back into his pocket. "You can't possibly think that I'd give it up that easily."

"I ripped you to pieces before, and I can damn well do it again," Naruto growled, flecks of his chakra spurting from his fingertips.

"Ah, Sakura," Hidan affirmed. "Remember you had asked me before who tore me apart? This was that stupid kid I was talking about."

"They made you do this, didn't they, Sakura? They made you get back Hidan?"

She bit back her lip.

"What are they working on, Sakura? What else are they making you do?"

"We're not _making_ her do anything," the Akatsuki corrected. "She chose to team up with me on her own accord."

"Bullshit," Naruto retorted. "And why the fuck aren't you with your regular partner?"

"Oh, Kakuzu?" Hidan asked wistfully. "Kakuzu is busy retrieving some things from another supplier—you didn't think that they would leave an important job for me when I have this bitch hanging around, did you?"

Something clicked in Sakura's mind and her eyes widened once more, this time, rimmed with anger.

"You _knew _where Sasuke was this entire time," she realized, her words saturated with a sudden hatred for the wretched man.

Now, the blond general had no idea what was going on. "Sasuke?"

Hidan's smile grew wider.

"You fucking _knew_," she declared, and stepped towards the Akatsuki, a kunai balanced between her fingers. "You damn well knew that I was looking for Sasuke this entire time—"

"And you played right into my hands," he finished the sentence for her, licking his lips while he leveled his face down towards her. Relishing the rage in her eyes, he continued, "And to think that I even believed for a second that you might have figured it all out…I mean, you did get past this punk's security to get to me—you were at least bright enough do to that unscathed." His eyes flickered over to Naruto. "Unless of course, I had greatly overestimated _your _intelligence."

Sakura snapped, taking a swipe at Hidan, who simply dodged backwards, laughing.

"Oh, Jashin, these Konoha brats are hopeless!"

Naruto shook his head. "Sakura, what's going—"

"Die, bastard," she declared, running towards Hidan, making hand symbols.

The smile never died from his face.

She stopped suddenly when she noticed a vial of red liquid between his fingers. Her heart stopped when she saw him slosh it playfully.

"And it's not that I have strange fetishes," he said in a low voice. "In fact, I'm quite thrilled that you didn't notice I got this from you—you were too distracted with my dick to notice."

Horrified, she looked down at the ground at his feet—the bastard had already prepared a ritual circle and was standing at its center. His skin was turning black as he licked the rest of her sweet blood off his thirsty lips, his arms reaching backwards for some more highly specialized weapons.

"Sakura!" Naruto gasped, taking a step toward her.

"Don't move one step closer," the Akatsuki growled, caressing his abdomen with black spears. "In fact, don't move at all, or your dear bitch is going to get the chance to have shared more than just a bed with me."

The kunoichi cursed to herself.

"Of course, it's only too bad that I don't have wings myself—I can only imagine how much pain getting them puncture would cause."

Gritting his teeth, Naruto asked, "What do you want?"

Hidan smiled. "Ah, you're catching on."

"Just tell me what the fuck you want from us!" the general snarled. "I'm not going to play your sick games."

"Oh good, because this isn't a game," the Jashin-bestowed Akatsuki replied, subsequently throwing a spear at his torso, off-centered and to the left.

Sakura screamed.

"What the _fuck _do you want?!" Naruto yelled, outraged, taking a step forward.

"I told you to not move," Hidan sneered, taking another stab at himself.

Another blood-retching wail from his teammate knocked Naruto down to desperation. "Stop it! What do you want? Leave her alone!"

Delighted at the sight of her warm blooms of blood stains on her clothing and seeping through her fingers, Hidan took a second to admire his damage before returning to Naruto, who was practically down at his knees, cerulean eyes torn, worried, all sorts of painful emotions that Hidan relished in.

"You have shinobi following Kakuzu," the Akatsuki stated.

Konohamaru looked over at his general's face, and nothing on Naruto's face affirmed Hidan's claim.

"Retreat your men," demanded Hidan. "Make an order—tell your men to stop following my partner around."

_This had all been planned, _Sakura realized, struggling to keep her eyes open as she winced in pain. She felt her heartbeat all over her skin—no position that she took seemed to lessen the flow of blood coming from her torso.

She had fallen right into the trap.

And god, so had Naruto—the Akatsuki had practically orchestrated them in a huge puppet show. They had taken advantage of Sakura's situation to eliminate Naruto's threat.

Naruto.

Sakura stole a glance at him once more.

He had changed so much.

Seven years had done a lot to him—and she couldn't imagine him thinking the same of her.

The Akatsuki were using her—using her to blackmail Naruto.

God, how could she have let this happen?

She hadn't even realized that damn Hidan had been tricking her the entire time.

He had gotten her help, her body, her blood, her chance to find Sasuke, and now he was just about to take away her teammate's glory.

_I deserve all this, _she decided, bearing the agony.

"I expect Kakuzu to return to Rain Country without a scratch on him, or even any of you fucking bastards spying on him," Hidan repeated.

And here, Naruto knew his plans had all been foiled.

He had thought that taking this extra shot at tracking down Hidan would have killed two birds with one stone—but he had never expected Sakura in the equation, and he had never expected that his attempt to score a bonus point would have let him lose both his front against Hidan and also his front against Kakuzu.

He was a fool.

_I should have just stay put in Konoha, _the general thought in pure regret.

The Akatsuki knew—they knew that he wouldn't be able to resist a golden opportunity to take revenge against his previously fallen opponent. That's why Hidan had been so flamboyant in his attire, not even bothering to disguise himself. They knew that he wouldn't be able to sacrifice Sakura for his pursuit of Kakuzu. That's why they had paired Hidan with her to essentially be a decoy.

And apparently, they had instrumented Sakura just as well. From what he gathered, she had been looking for Sasuke—and they had probably tricked her as well, making her come along with Hidan on her own will by lying that she'd be able to find Sasuke if she went along with the Jashin-worshipping bastard.

_Damn it_, he cursed. All the work and planning and advancements that they had uncovered—

All destroyed by that single impulse that he'd had to make sure Hidan never rose from the ground again.

God, he was such an idiot.

"Do as I say," Hidan interrupted Naruto's thoughts, "or the girl will die in front of your very eyes."

From the corner of his eye, he saw her head shake back and forth.

"You damn _fucker_!" she cursed. "Don't do it, Naruto—not for me!"

It wouldn't have mattered how convincingly she had said it, Naruto had resolved that that there was no way in hell he was going to let his teammate go.

Not again.

Not ever again.

"I understand," Naruto said quietly.

"What was that? I couldn't hear that," Hidan mocked.

"I'll take my men back," he snarled.

"General—"

"Go Konohamaru," Naruto commanded. "You know where the groups are. Tell them to back out."

The brown-haired shinobi was wordless, his forehead creased.

"Well, go on, you punk," Hidan smirked. "Do what your general just ordered you to do."

Once the younger ninja was out of sight, Naruto brought his eyes back to the Akatsuki, unable to ignore the reddened sand at Sakura's feet.

"Let her go. I did what you wanted."

This evoked a chuckle from the rogue nin. "I didn't promise you shit."

Outraged, the blond came forward to attack the fucker, but Hidan reminded him with a spear at his chest that he still had the power to ensure that Naruto actually lost everything he had hoped to gain by coming after the Akatsuki in the first place.

Sakura crumpled to the ground, but not before she had weakly thrown the remaining projectiles she had on her person at Hidan. The majority of these shuriken and kunai were dodged, but Hidan was not amused, punishing Sakura with a stab at her right arm.

The kunoichi rolled into a fetal position, whimpering in a manner that Naruto couldn't bear to hear any longer.

"You _bastard_," Naruto spat. "You fucking bastard—let her go!"

Hidan held up the same vial that he had ingested her blood from. It was still half-full, Sakura's scarlet life sloshing around in the capsule.

"I expect for my comrade to return to base without any interruptions," explained the Akatsuki. "I'll be joining him in a moment, and if anything goes wrong on our way back—the bitch _will _die. So you better damn well make sure that your little helper calls back your men—unfortunately for you, there is no distance limitation on my ritual."

Naruto wasn't going to let himself get tricked again. "How do I know you're not going to just kill her anyway?"

Here, the silver-haired man shrugged. "Would you risk her life to find out?"

Sakura coughed and moaned off to the side. Once Naruto's eyes were diverted, Hidan regained his normal stance and stepped outside of his ritual circle.

"I got her down to the maximum of blood she can lose," the Akatsuki told him with a smile. "You'll have to get her treated as soon as possible."

Seeing this as a cue to allow him to move again, Naruto ran to Sakura's side, knees onto the ground and cradling his half-conscious teammate in his arms, quick to ask if she was still awake.

"Maybe you'll get me next time," Hidan mocked as he backed away.

The blond prepared to tackle the Akatsuki and finish him for good—but as he rose a hand to form a jutsu, his red-haired teammate let out a softened groan. He realized that he couldn't spare a single second to take revenge on Hidan and instead had to take the kunoichi to the nearest medical facility.

With a scowl, Naruto tossed some spiteful projectiles Hidan's way.

"Fuck you!"

**divider**

"Sakura?"

When her eyes opened, he cursed in relief.

"Oh shit, shit, shit," he sighed, taking her limp body in his arms.

She slowly regained the full range of her vision and she looked around, seeing herself in a bright white room. Smelling antiseptics and wax floors, she groaned before picking her upper body and sitting straight. She let the blood rush pass before speaking.

"Naruto?"

"Sh, it's okay, Sakura. You'll be fine."

She looked down at herself, seeing herself in a thin hospital gown. She could feel bandages around her torso, the tightness of the cloth cutting into her skin as she bent forward.

The kunoichi looked back at Naruto. "Where am I?"

When the blond explained that she was in a nearby medical facility, she sighed and closed her eyes, falling back into the hospital bed.

God, the feel of crisp and clean sheets and the smell of fresh and new clothes…

It had been almost half of her entire life that she was deprived of these things. She could have been mad—the right of having a good night's sleep, of having a hot shower every day, of having a full stomach that didn't wake her up every morning, of having a normal life—all taken away from her by that bastard. But she was too tired to be thinking about anything and much too relieved to be finally back home where she belonged to ruin the moment.

She shifted her back uncomfortably, feeling familiar knobs stab at the muscles at her back.

Her eyes snapped open, taking herself out of her temporary bliss and reminding herself what she had set out to do in the first place. She sat back up and her right hand reached over her shoulder to finger the ridges over her back.

"They, uh, tried not to cover those," her teammate told her.

Sakura disregarded what he had said. "Hidan and Kakuzu got away?"

Not expecting her to ask that question, Naruto paused before affirming the fact.

"_Fuckers,_" she grimaced under her breath before looking over at her teammate. "I'm sorry—"

"It's not your fault," he quickly interrupted.

She meditated on his words for a moment. "I was looking for Sasuke," she added, and their third teammate's name hushed the atmosphere.

"You know," said Naruto's slow voice, "I didn't think I'd ever see you again before you showed up. I thought that you had probably…passed."

"I didn't think I'd see the outside ever again," she replied. But then she read between the lines and looked directly at Naruto, her emerald gaze turning serious and her voice lowering. "He's not dead. I know Sasuke's not dead."

His blue eyes shifted slightly. "You don't know that—Hidan could have been lying to you."

"Hidan didn't tell me where Sasuke was," she retorted quickly, saying the Akatsuki's name with disgust. "Itachi told me."

Her admission didn't help her case, and she could tell by the silence that followed.

"I know Sasuke is alive," she repeated, trying to relay her certainty to the other two. She later added, almost angrily, "And besides, there's no reason that he would be dead—he escaped before I did."

Sakura saw Naruto's eyebrows furrow before he asked a carefully worded question. "He escaped from the Akatsuki?"

"Akatsuki?"

"Orochimaru…took you guys, didn't he?"

She grit her teeth upon hearing the wretched name. "Yes, and he has nothing to do with the Akatsuki…And Hidan wasn't lying—I had gone to see the Akatsuki on my own—"

"Wait," Naruto interrupted. "Orochimaru isn't a member of the Akatsuki?"

Sakura didn't know why this mattered at all, and she certainly didn't know why Naruto didn't know this—especially since he seemed to be a general of some sort since Konohamaru had called him that previously and because Hidan recognized Naruto as the adversary that had defeated him.

"I don't know their history," she replied. "All I know is that Orochimaru and the Akatsuki have been enemies for a long time. I don't know why."

"The…Akatsuki didn't take you," Naruto repeated, faintly.

"No, I already told you," she explained, slightly exasperated. "I was being stupid. I thought they'd be able to help me find Sasuke."

Naruto looked off to the side.

Sakura was still familiar with her teammate's body language, despite their years apart. "Is something wrong?"

"No," he lied. "I just misunderstood for the longest time."

"You thought that Orochimaru and the Akatsuki were one and the same?" the kunoichi concluded.

With his subsequent silence, she knew his unsaid answer, and she let him marinate on his thoughts for a while, realizing that there was a lot that changed since she was gone, and that there was a lot that she still didn't know.

In fact, she doubted she knew who this person sitting next to her was anymore—she had only known the pre-teen and barely mature Naruto. Now that she was nineteen, he was nineteen as well, and the seven years that had separated them created strangers of each other.

"After you guys were taken," Naruto explained. "I swore I would never forgive the Akatsuki, and fighting them off has been what I've been doing since then." He looked down at his hands for a moment. "I guess I've been wasting my time."

"No," Sakura reassured him. "The Akatsuki are just as terrible as Orochimaru."

"Then why did you go to them for help?"

Her emerald eyes met his cerulean ones. "They know where Sasuke is."

Sakura could see the torment in his eyes.

She didn't have to have known him for the past seven years to know that it hurt him to know that he had been chasing the wrong criminals for his teammates' sakes for practically half his entire life, or that it hurt him to know that she had turned to receive help from the ones that he had on his blacklist for all that time.

"You can't trust them," he finally said.

"I don't," she told him. "I just trust Itachi." She wasn't prepared to explain why she felt the older Uchiha had been telling her the truth, but she had a gut feeling that he hadn't been lying—even if his statement eventually led to the Akatsuki's manipulation of her.

"We don't even know if he's alive," Naruto argued. "And…I can't forgive them for how they tricked you to get back at me."

"No," she denied, feeling a sudden flame spark within her—a bitter bile flowing up into her mouth. "Sasuke's not dead. And I have to find him." After she declared this, she looked back up at Naruto. "You have to help me find him."

He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. Shaking his head, he replied, "I can't do that. I can't risk losing you again, and I'm definitely not going to let you go in knee-deep in shit."

The kunoichi was just as equally unwilling to stop her search for their third teammate. "Just trust me on this. Don't tell me that you're going to just throw him away just because you're scared to lose me when you already had lost me seven years ago."

Something dark passed over his blue eyes. "What the hell are you talking about? I just found you—and I'm not risking losing you again."

"Naruto, I'm not the same person that you remember from seven years ago," she said darkly. "You haven't found your old teammate—you've found someone that looks like her, has her memories, but doesn't give a shit about anything except killing Orochimaru—"

"Sakura," he interrupted. "I'm sorry that you went through all that shit—and I've killed myself every day knowing that you and Sasuke were captured by him and…worse," he faded, gesturing to her back. "But if you need to find Sasuke, then _I'll _go out and try to find Sasuke—I'm going to send you back to Konoha where you'll be safe and where the Akatsuki aren't going to be able to get you that easily."

"Why can't I go with you?"

Flustered, he practically yelled at her. "Sakura, you _just_ got bandaged and treated for your wounds for doing what you've been trying to do! Can't you just…do me a favor and get better before throwing yourself out there again? I thought you were _dead, _I haven't seen you in _years_, and I lay my life down thinking that I'd never see you _again_—can we just breathe for a moment?"

"Fuck it," she said, refusing to argue and flipping the blankets off her body and getting off her bed.

"Sakura—what are you—lay back down!"

She spotted a pile of her things on the dresser nearby and walked over to it, discreetly clenching at the puncture wound at her side.

"Sakura!" and she felt his strong arms pull her away and turn her around.

She slapped him across the face with the back of her hand.

"You've already coped with me being dead for years," she snarled, seeing him turn his head down to take the sting on his cheek. "I'm sure you can go on doing that for the rest of life if all this ends up to be that way."

His eyes turned upwards at hers, wordless, and she suddenly realized the harshness of her words.

Not knowing how to apologize for that, she turned herself back around and folded the clothes on the dresser, rephrasing, "I don't want to waste any time—I need to end Orochimaru."

Her teammate didn't respond for the longest time, and she spent that eternity organizing and reorganizing her things on the dresser.

"You don't even know where Sasuke is."

She pursed her lips, knowing this was true. Still she replied, "He's one of their suppliers right now—and I'm willing to bet that Kakuzu is picking up their things from him."

"He's what?" and genuine surprise inflected in Naruto's voice.

"Itachi told me that he's running a black market. And that he's providing them with supplies right now." Then Sakura flipped herself over, leaning against the dresser, before confessing, "Fine, you're right—I don't know where he is…I'd be walking out of this hospital without the slightest idea of where to go."

"Yes, you do," he immediately replied, with the briefest pause.

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Because I know where Kakuzu went—and if where Kakuzu went was where Sasuke is, then we know where Sasuke is."

Sakura suddenly recalled Hidan's demand to Naruto, figuring that Naruto's men had been tracking down the Akatsuki's partner. _He _would _know, _she thought, further realizing that this was even more reason that she couldn't waste her time trying to find her raven-haired teammate.

"We have to go," she insisted. "This might be our only chance."

The blond's demeanor was slowly changing as he calculated the increasing probabilities for them to find their last team member, but he maintained his position. "I'll find out Sasuke's possible locations from the past bits of information my team collected," he said. "But you're still going to stay put to recover—"

She shook her head. As much as she didn't want to see the bastard again, she had greater goals that required the younger Uchiha.

"No—I have to talk to Sasuke myself. I'm going with you."

"Fine, but I'm not going until the med-nins have at least stopped the bleeding," he declared, pointing out the spot of red forming on the pale blue hospital gown. She was about to protest, but he added, "I need time to receive the information from intel anyway."

Sakura nodded, half-reluctantly. "Fine."

"And Hidan still has your blood—we have to be careful about doing all this," Naruto reminded, and she liked that he used the plural 'we' as opposed to the personal 'I' as this was remarked.

All this planning reminded her of their more youthful days.

"We'll go together—like a team," she said, dropping a bit of humor. "And when we see him, it'll be a reunion of sorts."

"Huh," he laughed voicelessly under his breath, almost reveling in the irony of everything.

_The three of us have really gone our own separate ways_, he thought.

Naruto had never thought that he'd see his teammates ever again—

Less that he'd clash blades with one of them.

And even less that he'd find out he was fighting against the very people the other one was helping this entire time.

* * *

**Mergh, this chapter was actually a lot more difficult to write than the previous ones… might have been because I was watching a House marathon while writing this…**

**But still let me know what you guys think! :)**

**Song of the update: "Lights" by Ellie Goulding (remixed by Bassnectar) – I actually prefer this version to the original—maybe it's because it was the first version of it that I heard before the shit went up on pop radio.**

**Well bear with me—I have some fight scenes and really hope that they're comprehensible and not too much to get through!**

**thir13enth**


	5. Chapter 5

**Some replies to reviewers:**

**InconsciousSin: Thanks so much for your reviews and I'm glad that you might take a peek into Naruto once more! I'm not personally keeping up with the manga but apparently Kisihimoto's actually gone forward and made some character deaths—which makes me extremely excited about the ending of this epic manga series. But yay! It's always fun to add a bit of character and attitude to our beloved cartoon friends!**

* * *

**Chapter Five:**

**"actions speak louder than words do. I don't want to hear dead words from you."**

When she was forced to duck their head to avoid an incoming shuriken, she knew that they had come to the right place.

"What do you want?" a low female voice asked, from the inner depths of the dark hallway.

After having checked several different locations based on the predictions from Naruto's intel, the two teammates had finally come across an abandoned building. Naruto and Sakura had split earlier, searching in opposite directions of the place.

"Show yourself," hissed Sakura, readying a kunai in her right hand.

She did—a slender woman with red hair, half-cropped while the other half was long and straight. She looked completely unarmed, save for her right hand, which was still held up in the throw of her previous shuriken. Her skin was covered in marks that looked suspiciously like teeth marks.

Sakura wasn't impressed; she had seen worse.

"Who are you?" demanded the unnamed girl.

"I could ask the same of you," Sakura replied, just as raunchily.

"You're one of them," their opponent continued. "I can read it in your chakra."

Sakura felt the muscles at her wings tense. Her question came out anxiously, with her emerald eyes narrowed, "One of what?"

"You're an even bigger freak than he is," she simply said, toying at the edge of her glasses.

Sakura's answer came in growl. "So you _do _know Sasuke Uchiha."

The woman smiled, giving her a brief laugh. "What gives?"

And then her blood red irises turned murderous as she flicked a serrated blade from the frame of her eyewear and whipped over to attack Sakura.

**divider**

Naruto had been walking down his side of the building for quite some time—and he was just about to call it quits and suggest that Sakura and him move onto the next location.

However, Sakura, for some reason, had been incredibly twitchy upon coming close to this site. She hadn't been able to explain her gut feeling to him, but it was enough for him to not give up on the search for Sasuke in this building.

Sasuke.

The blond wasn't sure if he was just about ready to face his former teammate.

Could he look into those onyx eyes and explain why he hadn't been able to save them that day?

He was barely able to swallow what had happened to Sakura—in fact, he didn't think he knew everything that had happened to Sakura. Nor did he _want _to know what had happened to Sakura.

What if Sasuke had ended up worse?

Naruto found himself holding his breath.

_It doesn't matter, _he told himself. Sakura forgave him…right? Who was to say that Sasuke wasn't going to as well?

It seemed different, though.

After all, Naruto had made the decision himself to go to Sakura's side to help her rather than to stick by Sasuke and defend him. He had thought that Sasuke had been strong enough to fend off Orochimaru on his own.

Sasuke had seen Naruto turn his back on him, and Sasuke also knew that Naruto had failed to protect Sakura as well. Had Naruto fought along with Sasuke, they might have all had a chance to fend against Orochimaru.

But he hadn't—and for seven years, he was paying the consequences.

"Damn it," the blond murmured under his breath.

"Well said," threatened a voice behind him.

Naruto barely dodged the huge rectangular blade that had come down in front of him. The sword chipped a scar into the wet stone tile beneath them. Preparing several kunai for throwing between his fingers, he quickly took observation of his assaulter—a white-haired man whose teeth reminded Naruto of a certain blue-skinned Akatsuki's shark-like jaws. There was no doubt in Naruto's mind that his attacker was going to be using primarily water-type techniques. And curiously, his opponent's biceps seemed to be disproportionately enlarged compared to the rest of his thin-framed body.

He gave Naruto a toothy smile before swinging again—and his speed startled Naruto, who had ran forward to duck the guillotine-like whip towards his head. Naruto quickly recovered, hurling his heels against the ground and turning back around.

The adversary noted a few strands of yellow hair on the ground between them and remarked, "You needed a haircut anyway."

But it was Naruto's turn now, and he wasn't going to let the swordsman slice anything else off him. Tan hands pressed together and hurled out daggers.

The sharp-toothed shinobi smirked, bringing up his sword to deflect Naruto's far-ranged attacks, but he hadn't been prepared for the small pulse of electrical chakra that the blond had discreetly tucked in the wind of the kunai. The blue energy zapped in the air, snapping at the opponent's pale skin, causing him to curse.

Since his enemy had been temporarily paralyzed in the shock, Naruto had followed up his projectiles with a chakra-infused punch to the face, while attempting to kick away the huge sword and knock it out of his opponent's hands. His blue eyes sparkled in anticipation as he felt his fist make contact—

"—the fuck?" he cursed when seeing his hand pass right through his enemy's head, which had turned to water the moment he thought he had made impact.

"Heh," the liquefied shinobi chuckled before flipping backwards and throwing Naruto down the hall.

**divider**

When Sakura's fist was sideswept by her opponent's grab at her wrist, she readied both her legs for a mid-air kick.

She hadn't had to do any fighting of her own for a very long time, and although she had been training herself daily in her underground prison when that devil of a Legendary Sannin wasn't looking, her ninjutsu still needed a lot of brushing up. She didn't try to show it on her face, but she was feeling herself falling behind in speed and accuracy.

However, seeing that the girl she was facing wasn't particularly much better than her, it didn't really matter.

_Take that, bitch_, she thought while throwing her body weight into her taijutsu.

And with that, the enemy kunoichi was flung to the floor, her back scraping against the tiles as she flew backwards down the length of the hall, her red hair flailing in the air.

Sakura quietly compared the chick's hair with her own. Both red, but even without being self-biased, Sakura could tell that her flame-like hair was more impressive than the sickening cherry red of her opponent's head. She couldn't help but smugly smile to herself, before quickly retying her hair in the seconds that it took for her enemy to recover from the ground.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

Her enemy rose from the ground, wiping off some blood that was trickling down her jaw with the lavender sleeve of her shirt. "Why do you need to know where he is?"

A stupid question.

"I need to talk to him," Sakura replied just as vaguely.

"So you think that a lowlife like you can just waltz in here and ask to talk to him?" asked her adversary, walking back towards her slowly with very defined scowl on her face.

Sakura took the opportunity to shoot a few hateful shuriken her way. "Who are you calling a lowlife, bitch?"

Easily dodging the projectiles with a bend of her hips or a turn of her head, the other redhead retaliated. "Well why wouldn't you be one—if you were otherwise, you wouldn't have needed to sneak around all over the other buildings around the place to try to find the boss," her adversary sassed, emphasizing each word with small throwing needle.

Her emerald eyes almost missed some of the projectiles, but Sakura was able to run up to her enemy without a scratch, cartwheeling into downwards heel strike, aiming for the collarbone.

The other girl wasn't able to think of a quick counterattack, throwing up her forearms against Sakura's weight. While this blocked Sakura's kick, it also allowed her to make one final front flip and push her opponent from behind, forcing her to back into the wall.

Once Sakura took the upper hand, a kunai pressed up against the other kunoichi's neck, she demanded once again, "Where is he?"

Her enemy wasn't going to give up so easily though. "What do you need to tell him?" she growled, before drawing her hands up in some sort of hand sign that Sakura didn't check and then turning into a smoke—a replacement.

Sakura whipped herself around and caught her opponent's blade against her own before it could slice into her skin. "Nothing that would involve you," she snapped.

Not expecting the other girl to be that flexible, Sakura didn't expect the vertical kick that went directly for her jaw, sending her upwards. Grunting, she stopped herself from hitting her head by propping her hands up against the ceiling of the hallway and prepared a scissor kick, pushing off the wall, letting gravity do the rest.

Backing from her attack, her enemy retorted in a low voice, "Just because you're like him doesn't mean that you get any privileges."

"And you do?" Sakura barked.

Here, the girl's lips—covered in a light lavender gloss—curved into a smirk. "I was one of the first people to help him create this beautiful monetary empire."

Sakura didn't give a shit, but a twig snapped inside her.

He chose this petty bitch to help him establish his black market? Instead of going back to save her, he had completely forgotten about his promise and went right ahead to become rich?

_Really now, Sasuke. You've developed quite a bad taste, _she surmised, taking a second glance at her opponent's lengthy figure as well as the developed width of her hips and ripe bulge of her chest.

Wrapping all her emotions into one word, she snarled, "Whore."

**divider**

"What? Can't attack me?" the opponent jeered, beckoning Naruto to come at him with open arms.

"Get over here you bastard!" Naruto roared, frustrated by his enemy's liquid advantage, throwing himself once again at the white-haired man.

After rendering Naruto's physical attacks ineffective with his watered form, his enemy questioned with a raise of his eyebrow. "You're that Naruto, aren't you?" Ducking another punch, he continued, "I've heard of you—you're that guy that heading the Leaf Country's initiative against the Akatsuki."

Naruto didn't respond, shoving bombed shuriken at his opponent and backing off.

His enemy dropped to the ground, becoming a puddle and sitting out the explosions before reforming into human form once again.

"I heard you took down Deidara," continued the talkative enemy. "And then Hidan—singlehandedly."

The blond general was rather annoyed that his name had gotten around—though he wouldn't have expected of less in the criminal world.

_Criminal world, _Naruto pondered for a second. He didn't want to think of it in that manner, but Sasuke was part of the criminal world—technically on the other side, working with whomever the hell Naruto had been fighting against the entire time.

"They call you the 'ring collector,'" his adversary added, with a coy smile. "They think you're just after those rings on their fingers."

"Don't think that just because you don't have anything on your fingers means that you're safe from dying in my hands," Naruto finally retorted, irritated by his enemy's raves.

"Ah, but Hidan never died, did he? I heard he was resurrected or something…"

This placed scorn on Naruto's face. "Shut the fuck up."

Noticing that he had struck a nerve, his enemy faintly smiled before throwing his body weight into the next few slices with his sword. Naruto noticed that his assailant was slowly losing speed, and that his breathing was growing shallower—his opponent was probably running out of energy, which probably meant that some big final last attempt was coming up, something that Naruto would have to watch out for.

The incessant talking was most likely just to rile him up.

The opposition's dark purple eyes narrowed. "You know, I also heard that you were teammates with Sasuke," he murmured, steading his sword onto his shoulder with both hands on his sword's grip. "Might just be a rumor but from the look on your face, it doesn't look like it…"

Naruto studied his enemy's slow and calculating movements, fists raised up in preparation.

"You know…" he continued, a slow smile growing over his pale skin, "Sasuke's never mentioned you, and from what I can tell, Sasuke doesn't give a shit about you at all."

Enraged, Naruto went for the enemy's blood again.

However, to his surprise, the opponent completely split into two, his body diverging. Naruto's momentum took him through the two halves of his enemy and before he knew it, the white-haired man was completely behind him. Swiveling around the split second after he realized he had been tricked, Naruto found himself backed up against the wall, his neck trapped between the cool moist brick and the crescent towards the end of the his adversary's blade.

Cursing, Naruto attempted to get out of the tight situation by kicking at his competitor's legs, but the liquification of his body deemed Naruto's maneuvers useless.

"Normally, Sasuke would tell me save the kill—but I think he doesn't seem to give two craps about you, he probably wouldn't mind if I did away with your life," whispered his opponent in a breath tainted with bloodlust.

"What did you say about me?" an all-too-familiar voice, now deepened with age and weariness, echoed down the hall.

"Damn," murmured his opponent—clearly unamused that he didn't get the chance to draw blood—as he retracted his sword and rested it over his shoulder, his arms shrinking to a more normal size. He looked over toward the voice, remarking, "Look who we've caught."

Once the footsteps drew close enough, Naruto shifted his cerulean gaze towards the approaching voice, knowing who he was looking at right away.

Naruto was still surprised to see him.

He hadn't expected Sasuke to end up this way.

Still the same jet black hair thrown up in the same messy style that all the girls fell over. Still the same calm and cool onyx gaze that everyone found handsome. Still the same silky melodious voice that women swooned for. Still the damn tint of indifference in his gait that Naruto had grown to hate in his days before being teamed up with the prodigy.

But the edges of Sasuke's eyes were creased with jadedness, heavy tired bags under his eyes, and his lips—rather than a expressionless and smirk-prone line—were now a permanent soft grimace. His skin seemed even more pale and cold-blooded than the last of how Naruto remembered it.

The Uchiha crested shirt that he had always worn was no longer adorned proudly on the outside; instead worn as an inner layer, its high collar poking out of the black long sleeved shirt that gripped his lightly chiseled, but otherwise lanky figure. His hands were gloved—just the tips of his fingers showing through, the fingernails an unhealthy purple like no blood circulated at the ends of his hands. He donned simple dark pants that reminded Naruto vaguely of the ones typically worn by Konoha's jounin, and atop his shoulders was an extra layer of heavy clothing: a black trench coat that reached his knees, which he wore without buttoning up.

There was no hitai-ate perched on his forehead, and Naruto suddenly realized that he hadn't seen Sakura wearing hers either. They had probably both lost their Konoha protectors in their kidnapping, Naruto assumed, but that was something that he didn't want to be reminded of at the moment—

He was _alive_.

Sasuke's obsidian eyes flickered, his tense jaw turning loose, almost dropping.

"Naruto."

"Teme," his blond responded, getting up onto his feet, noticing that his teammate still hadn't moved from where he stood.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, hello to you too, after a fucking long ass time," Naruto chided, catching the restraint in the Uchiha's words. When his raven-haired friend didn't find words to reply with after a few extended seconds, Naruto added, "Sakura's looking for you."

Alarm poured out of Sasuke's countenance and his eyes widened:

"Where is she?!"

**divider**

Some more hissing insults were exchanged before their blades collided in a fall back to close-range fighting and chakra-extended attacks.

Sakura didn't understand why the bitch was fighting at all—there wasn't any reason to try to kill her when Sakura didn't even see a need to bother messing with the redhead. After all, she wasn't here to waste time and energy on dealing with Sasuke's subordinates when she needed to see the damn bastard in person herself.

"Give it up," she threatened between clenched teeth.

Her opponent responded with a hard kick at her stomach, something Sakura countered by bending forward and catching her foot, flipping the girl backwards.

"I'm just doing my job," muttered her assailant, who successfully threw her weight back around to follow Sakura's attack with a butterfly kick, her body running perfectly parallel to the ground.

It still bothered Sakura how the chick knew that she wasn't quite fully human without so much as a hesitation, even going as far as to call her a 'half-life.'

And it also still bothered Sakura that she obviously knew Sasuke and that she wasn't giving Sakura a relatively easier time to seeing him.

"What's your damn problem?" Sakura finally asked, holding a fighting stance and pausing their combat for a brief moment. "Why can't you just take me to the fucking bastard?"

Her enemy pushed her glasses back up to set properly over her scarlet irises. She bit her lip to contain a coy grin. "What—jealous that I'm in your way of seeing him?"

Disgusted at the implication, Sakura sneered, "Far from it."

The damn whore could have Sasuke all to herself—Sakura couldn't have been less interested.

"Karin! Stop attacking her."

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed at hearing the recognizable male voice coming from behind her.

"Oh Sasuke!" her opponent cried, her eyes suddenly turning from fight to infatuation as her hands clasped together. "This _girl _just came in from nowhere—she was threatening to see you!"

Sakura refused to turn around.

"Sakura," the same voice called out, low and careful.

Karin's face turned to shock. "What—Sasuke, you _know _her?"

"Sakura," he repeated.

Finally, she gathered the effort to actually speak to him—she wouldn't have opened her mouth at all if she was able to get away with it.

"I need to talk to you," she stated, her back still turned against him.

She could hear the hesitation in his silence.

"Karin, Suigetsu—leave," he commanded his subordinates. "I'll take care of things from here."

Sakura's redheaded opponent visibly looked like she was going to argue against his doing so, but she was quick to clamp her mouth shut and turned her back on Sakura. A white-haired man followed right after her, brushing past Sakura, who still refused to face her teammate.

Once the two of them were out of earshot, he pleaded with her again.

"Please Sakura…I just want to see that it's actually you."

She pressed her lips together and composed herself before releasing a deep breath and turning around.

He had grown.

He stood at least a foot taller than when she had last seen him, and whatever soft adolescent features he had had left on his countenance had melted away to a sullen hollowness.

There was something about him that she couldn't explain—something that made him look like he had been famished for ages.

"Come, Sakura. Let's talk," he simply said, offering his hand out to her.

Sakura looked over to Naruto, who was standing off to the side of Sasuke. She couldn't read his facial emotions but his cerulean eyes were trained on hers, and they reminded her of the sacrifice that they had made to come this far—she couldn't just brush him off.

So she didn't take his hand but instead walked forwards, and once passing him, she turned around again. "Alright, let's go," she affirmed.

Once they were in an empty room, Sasuke leaned against the door to close it.

"How did you find me?"

"It wasn't that difficult," Sakura replied, with a bitter edge to her words.

His onyx eyes chipped at her sharp response. "What do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter—why do you even care?" she deflected.

"Sasuke, if you were here this entire time, why didn't you come back to Konoha?" Naruto asked.

Their raven-haired team member looked over at Naruto, and unable to answer the blond's question, turned his head back to Sakura's narrowed eyes, choosing to answer her. "I just want to know how—"

"No, answer _his _question," she interjected. "I want to know about that too."

Sasuke's eyes turned towards the ground and he finally sighed, "I don't know."

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?" Naruto's voice began to rise.

"I don't know," Sasuke repeated, his voice turning harsher.

"Of course," the kunoichi nonchalantly remarked, not expecting Sasuke to have been anymore resourceful.

"You don't know?" the blond asked again in disbelief.

"It's okay, Naruto. Sasuke isn't going to be much—"

Their raven-haired teammate shook his head. "Okay, what do you guys want from—"

"Fuck, Sasuke!" Naruto blurted. "I don't have any idea what you're doing! Why the hell are you even helping the Akatsuki? I thought you hated—"

"Akatsuki?" and now Sasuke's voice rose in his alarm.

"They're how we found you," Sakura cutely smiled at the horrified Uchiha.

"I know you're running a black market and that you're supplying them," Naruto explained. "Why the fuck are you doing that?"

"I'm not giving them anything!" and here, Sasuke slammed his fist into the door. "What reason would I have to offer them shit?"

"Well you don't _know _that you're giving them what they need," Sakura pointed out.

"The last person you transacted with was Akatsuki!" Naruto exclaimed.

She tsk-ed. "You were just too stupid to even notice—"

"Fuck!" Sasuke cursed, spite darkening his complexion. "You guys better not be shitting me!"

"What did you sell him?" Naruto demanded quickly.

"Pssh," Sakura rolled her eyes emphatically. "Shitting you? Oh please, we're not _all _lying bastards like you are."

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows at Sakura's comment for a split second before returning to Naruto. "I don't…I don't know! Fuck!"

"How do you not know—"

"He's too busy fucking sluts," she interjected.

"No! What?" Sasuke asked Sakura before replying to the other teammate. "I don't know—it was a package! I don't create these things; I just sell them!"

"God, Sasuke, we've been playing against each other this entire time!" Naruto sputtered angrily. "And you didn't even know it! How big was this package?"

"Shit, Naruto—I don't know the damn dimensions!" Sasuke cursed more before shaking his head and then roaring, "Okay, what the _fuck _do you guys want from me? Why did you come to find me in the first place?"

"I need to talk to you," Sakura stated in a low voice.

His eyes met hers before shifting over to Naruto, who decided that it was probably better if he had left the two of them alone. Sasuke moved aside and let him out the door.

She waited a few seconds after the door closed before meeting his obsidian eyes again.

Silence overarched the first half of their conversation.

His voice came out slowly. "When…did you get out?"

She held her tongue for a moment before saying, "Later than I was expecting."

He bit his lip and looked away. "Sakura…I'm sorry."

She didn't forgive him. "What were you doing this whole time? Fucking that redheaded slut?"

"Sakura," he called her name, almost in frustration. "I'm sorry."

"You wouldn't have to be if—"

"I didn't forget you."

"Oh right, and that's why you never—"

"I thought you were dead."

Her eyes narrowed in disbelief. "What would make you think that?"

"I went back for you," he explained, his voice shaking. "He showed me your dead body—fuck, Sakura, how was I to know that he was lying and that you were actually still alive?"

She didn't answer him, just shaking her head.

"Sakura," he repeated in desperation. "I'm sorry. Please. I didn't know." He tentatively reached out his hand toward her, his fingers grazing her forearm.

When she didn't budge away from his contact, he stepped forward and fully embraced her, tucking her head into his shoulder.

She kneed him and pushed him off.

"This isn't a reunion," she snapped. "This is a collaboration."

He found nothing to say to her.

"You're going to help me kill Orochimaru."

It took him a moment to reply. "Is that why you came to find me?"

"I never wanted to see you again," she snarled. "If it were otherwise, you would have died thinking that I wasn't alive."

"Why did you come to me in the first place then?" he demanded as she began to walk past him towards the door.

"You're going to help me kill Orochimaru," she reconfirmed, swinging open the door.

He watched her reach for the door handle before speaking. "You know, you could have just done it on your own," he said quietly.

"What do you mean?" she asked, in a low growl.

"You didn't have to find me in order to kill him."

She stopped mid-step through the exit.

Without so much as a falter in her stern voice: "I just wanted to know if you were alive."

* * *

**Lol, I know that envisioning Sasuke as this weird apologetic version of himself as opposed to the hateful spiteful person we know him now might be strange—but I guess in alternate universe, his story took a different turn.**

**And well, fuck, it's a fanfiction. Still, I hope you guys don't find it too OOC. xD**

**Song of the update: Dehumanized by Disturbed –one of my favorite bands; I'm quite upset that they broke into a hiatus (which I think, is a euphemism for 'we didn't quite break up, but we lost interest and probably won't join up again'). I won't save any hope for new album releases.**

**Review please! Let me know what's in those minds of yours...**

**thir13enth**


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